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THE MINISTER. | 
AND HIS MINISTRY pas 


By 
JOHN MAHAN ENGLISH, D.D. 


Professor Emeritus of Homiletics and Pastoral Duties 
in The Newton Theological Institution 


Author of ** For Pulpit and Platform ”’ 


PHILADELPHIA 
THE JUDSON PRESS 
BOSTON CHICAGO LOS ANGELES 


KANSAS CITY SEATTLE TORONTO 





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Published May, 1024. 


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TO 
THE ALUMNI 
OF 
THE NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION 
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY 
DEDICATED 





PREFACE 


Tue Alumni of The Newton Theological Insti- 
tution contributed a fund of ten thousand dollars 
to establish a lectureship in the Homiletic Depart- 
ment, and requested that it bear the title “ The 
John Mahan English Lectureship,” the object of 
which is to bring to the Institution experienced 
pastors and other specialists in Christian work 
to reside with the students for an appropriate 
period, and hold conferences with them concern- 
ing their future labors. The Alumni thought it 
fitting that I should deliver the initial lectures on 
the Foundation. Numerous requests have been 
made that the lectures be published. They con- 
stitute the present work. In the delivery of the 
lectures, owing to the limitation of time the full 
contents of the second and third lectures could 
not be given. They appear in this volume. 

The Christian minister, although he contends 
with strong competition in securing the attention 
and the interest of the public, has an ever-wid- 


PREFACE 





ening sphere of service in furthering the largest 
human welfare. But his ministry must be of a 
high order if he is to achieve his vital and diffi- 
cult task, since efficiency in every realm of en- 
deavor is growingly demanded. It is the pur- 
pose of this volume to set forth the qualities of his 
preaching, the scope of his leadership, and his 
equipment that are essential to his greatest suc- 
cess. Every Christian minister should keenly 
feel the opportunity and the responsibility that 
are his in extending the kingdom of truth, of 
righteousness, and of love. The author indulges 
the hope that this book may contribute a mea- 
sure of helpfulness to the ministers who may con- 
sult its pages, particularly to students for the 
ministry in theological schools and to the younger 
ministers. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
Peel HEMMINISTERVAS PREACHER (3) oc Vu I 
Il) THE MINISTER AS LEADER........... 27 


Ill. THE MINISTER’s EQUIPMENT......... 83 





THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 





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THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


wo of the outstanding functions of the pastoral 
ministry are preaching and leadership. If either 
is neglected, both suffer. The modern ministry 
is under obligation equally to emphasize them, 
else the bringing in of God’s kingdom is greatly 
hindered. ) In the present chapter the preaching 
of the minister is to be considered. Strong 
preaching is to a ministry what iron is to the 
blood. If the pulpit is weak, leadership lacks 
vigor and tone. Successful leadership of a 
church is the complement of a virile pulpit, af- 
fording practical working expression of its 
teaching, and so furnishing Christian truth the 
opportunity of coming to its normal fruition in 
building character and in furthering service. 

It is ground for deep gratitude and strong en- 
couragement on the part of the Christian preacher 
that the book which furnishes him his message 
is also the book that supplies the temper, the 
qualities, the methods, and the objects of preach- 
ing. These are expressed in certain homiletic 
terms, the study of some of the chief of which 
will set forth what is required of the minister 
as an effective present-day preacher. 


[3] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





I. The first term to be considered is euaggelizo, 
which means “ to bring good news, to announce 
glad-tidings.”’ It occurs fifty-three times, and 
the corresponding noun, euaggelion, seventy- 
five times. It corresponds in meaning with the 
Old Testament word, “to announce good tid- 
ings,” which is first used in a secular sense. 
When one reported to David Saul’s death, he is 
said to have brought good tidings. (2 Sam. 
4: 10.) The four lepers who discovered the 
flight of the Syrians under their king, Ben-hadad, 
said, “This day is a day of good tidings” 
(axkKings | Zc) Oy) 

In Isaiah the associations of the word are 
spiritual. ‘‘ How beautiful upon the mountains 
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, 
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth” (Isa. 
52:7). 

The idea of good tidings in the spiritual sense 
was carried over from Judaism into Christianity 
by Jesus himself in his address in the synagogue 
in Nazareth, when he declared the nature and 
the scope of his ministry by quoting Isaiah 
61: 1, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
because he anointed me to preach good-tidings ”’ 
(Luke 4: 18). In response to the multitudes 
in Capernaum, who besought him to remain there, 
he said, “I must preach the good-tidings of the 


[4] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 





kingdom of God to the other cities also: for 
therefore was I sent”? (Luke 4: 43). To John 
the Baptist, who in prison was disheartened con- 
cerning Jesus as the Messiah, and sent his dis- 
ciples to inquire, “ Art thou he that cometh, or 
look we for another?”’ Jesus answered by stat- 
ing the credentials of his Messiahship, including 
among them as chief, “the poor have good-tid- 
ings preached to them” (Matt. 11:5). In 
Jesus’ conception of his ministry the term em- 
phasized the content of his preaching. It was 
sometimes linked with the idea of heralding, as 
in Luke 8: 1, “ He went about through cities 
and villages heralding, and bringing the good- 
tidings of the kingdom of God.” Godet, in his 
comment on the passage, says that good-tidings 
“adds the idea of a proclamation of grace as the 
prevailing character of his teaching.” 

After Pentecost the term was used to signify 
the fulness of the gospel as God’s saving agency. 
In this meaning it frequently occurs in the Acts, 
and is there peculiarly applicable to the minis- 
try of Paul. Philip in his ministry in Samaria, 
Peter and John in their preaching on their way 
to Jerusalem from their mission in Samaria, Paul 
in his address in Antioch of Pisidia, and in his 
letter to the church in Rome, expressing his 
yearning to reach the capital of the world that 


[5] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


he might discharge his indebtedness to “ Greeks 
and to barbarians, both to the wise and the fool- 
ish,” emphasized as central in their preaching 
the bringing of good-tidings. In writing to the 
Corinthians, Paul broadly characterized his min- 
istry thus, ‘“ Christ sent me not to baptize, but 
to preach good-tidings”” (1 Cor. I : 17). 

As the bringer of good-tidings the preacher 
and his ministry are to be marked by two out- 
standing qualities, else he is entirely unfitted for 
his holy task. 

First, joyfulness. “ The gospel is the gospel 
of the glory of the blessed God.”’ It contains and 
manifests the glory, the splendor of the moral 
and spiritual excellence of the perfect and bliss- 
ful God. God’s salvation fairly rings with the 
joy of his fatherly heart. The reason for the 
unalloyed and profound happiness of a true child 
of God is that the blissful heart of the eternal 
Father is in him. In this sense he is a partaker 
of the divine nature. How, then, can such a 
gospel as this find anything like adequate com- 
munication through God’s ambassador unless his 
own soul is overflowing with the fulness of the 
divine joy, unless his spirit, his manner, his 
speech declare that he is a partaker of the good 
cheer of the saving divine grace that has been 
committed to his trust? How can a man with 


[6] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 





pessimism in his heart and a doleful note on his 
tongue convey to sinful men the gospel of the 
glory of the blessed God? 

It is a fair question whether the preaching of 
the present day does not owe a part of its in- 
efficiency to the fact that the ministry has be- 
come so used to the message it presents that it 
fails to react upon it with that superabounding 
joy which so evidently marked the preaching of 
the first disciples of Jesus, and so largely ac- 
counted for its magnificent triumphs? Preach- 
ing the gospel now as ever achieves victory not 
so much from what is said as by the way in 
which it is said, by the cheerful, optimistic tone 
of the minister of it. Here was largely the 
source of the amazing fruitfulness of such 
preachers as Peter, Paul, Augustine, Bernard of 
Clairvaux, Spurgeon, Moody. The evangelical 
ministry of today should do a great deal of heart- 
searching as to whether or not the fine flavor of 
the divine gladness has grown stale in the ex- 
perience and on the lips of the men who have 
been set apart of God for its saving utterance. 
Jesus exquisitely enjoyed his message. This was 
one element in his speaking with authority, and 
in the dominant cheerful temper of his character. 
Are modern ministers the true disciples of their 
Lord in this? 


[7] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


Secondly, hopefulness. The man who is di- 
vinely commissioned to herald the glad tidings 
of salvation is strangely recreant to his high cail- 
ing, and to the confidence that God reposes in 
him, if he is not constantly expecting his message 
to be favorably received by those who hear it 
from his lips. It is an almost universal law of 
life that we get what we are aiming for. The 
happening of the unexpected is exceptional. As 
a rule, the man who is looking for success 
achieves it, and the man who is fearing defeat 
suffers it. Success in any calling hinges less upon 
sheer intellectual ability and exact learning than 
upon the way a man is built, upon his dominant 
mood. When a preacher of the good tidings has 
that spirit of superabounding triumph of which 
Paul speaks, “In all things we are more than 
conquerors through him that loved us,” even 
though his intellectual and vocational outfit may 
not be of the best, indeed, though it is inferior, 
his ministry is bound to be heard from. Perhaps 
as much preaching power runs to waste through 
a lack of expectation of success as through any 
other single cause. It is a sin as well as certain 
failure to attempt to preach the glad tidings in 
the fear that men will reject it. It is a contra- 
diction in terms. Joseph Parker, Charles H. 
Spurgeon, Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks, 


[8] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


to name none of the living successful preachers, 
had no other expectation than that success would 
crown their ministries, and it was largely that 
which brought it. 

2. A second word of significance for preach- 
ing is kérusso, which occurs sixty times, kérugma, 
eight times, kérux, three times. 

In the New Testament it means “ to announce 
publicly,” “to herald,’ “always,” as Thayer 
says, “ with a suggestion of formality, gravity, 
and an authority which must be listened to and 
obeyed.” “John the Baptist heralded in the 
wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent, for the 
kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3: 1). 
“Jesus went about all Galilee, heralding the gos- 
pel of the kingdom” (Matt. 4: 23). “ Philip 
went down to the city of Samaria, and heralded 
unto them the Christ” (Acts 8:5). Paul in 
his imprisonment in Rome, “ gladly welcomed 
all that went in to him, heralding the kingdom 
of God” (Acts 28 : 30, 31). 

The word kérusso emphasizes the publicity and 
the universality with which the gospel is to be 
preached. Jesus commanded the twelve apostles, 
“ What ye hear in the ear, herald upon the house- 
fons (CaAtiietO*: 27). 

3. A third homiletic term calling for consid- 
eration is kataggello, which means “to bring 


Le 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


down a message, to bring it home to one, to pub- 
lish, to proclaim.” It is used seventeen times. 

In the Authorized Version it has a variety of 
translations; in the Revised Version it is almost 
uniformly, fifteen times out of seventeen, trans- 
lated “to proclaim.” The gospel is viewed as a 
message entrusted by God to the preacher as a 
messenger. It is not his own, but another’s. The 
term is found mainly in the Acts. When Bar- 
nabas and Saul, on the first missionary journey, 
arrived in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of 
God in the synagogues of the Jews. (Acts 
13: 5.) In his address in Antioch of Pisidia, 
Paul declared, “‘ Be it known to you, therefore, 
brethren, that through this man is proclaimed 
unto you remission of sins” (Acts 13: 38). 
To the Athenians Paul said, “‘ What therefore 
ye worship in ignorance, this I proclaim unto 
you’’ (Acts 17: 23). To the Colossians he 
wrote, “Whom we proclaim unto you” (Col. 
Leesan! 

This aspect of Christian preaching should 
yield in the preacher the quality of faithfulness. 
He is the proclaimer of a message that Almighty 
God has vouchsafed to him. He is to be faithful 
as to the content of his message. He is neither 
to add to it nor subtract from it. He is con- 
scientiously to guard the sacred deposit of sav- 


[10] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 





ing truth that is entrusted to his keeping. As 
Chrysostom says: ‘Take not aught from the 
deposit : it is not thine; thou wast entrusted with 
others’ goods: deteriorate them not.’’ There may 
be qualities of his message that are not so agree- 
able to the preacher as are others. Beyond what 
he may be wholly conscious of he may wrest the 
truth, giving it a tinge not native to it. He may 
be tempted to adulterate the pure truth of God 
because of its apparent severity, or its supposed 
unacceptableness to his hearers. The Christian 
minister is under the most binding moral obliga- 
tion to preach the truth as he understands it, 
after the most conscientious and painstaking 
search to discover its exact meaning. In an age 
like ours this requires the finest sort of Christian 
conscience and courage. 

Faithfulness is called for also in the commumi- 
cation of the message. The minister is to be con- 
stantly about his Master’s business. He is never 
to consult his own selfish convenience or ease. 
He is sincerely to use every opportunity to com- 
municate the truth. He is to “ be urgent in sea- 
son, out of season,” or as it has been phrased, 
“unseasonably in season.’ In voluntarily ac- 
cepting a commission from God, the preacher has 
cordially and solemnly consented to press home 
the truth with all the powers of his soul upon 


[11] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


all whom he meets as suitable occasion offers or 
as he can make occasion suitable. 

4. A fourth term is martureo, to bear testi- 
mony to the truth as a witness. ‘ Primarily,” 
says Cremer, “to attest anything one knows.”’ 
It occurs seventy-eight times, martus, thirty-four 
times. 

A witness may arrive at his knowledge in a 
variety of ways. He may be an eye-witness, or 
an ear-witness, as was the case with the apostles 
concerning the truth spoken and the deeds 
wrought by Jesus. It may emphasize the knowl- 
edge of, the truth by personal experience of it. 
This is its central idea today. The witness de- 
clares the message out of his own soul. The 
term is used repeatedly of the preaching of John 
the Baptist, and of that of Jesus himself, par- 
ticularly in the Gospel of John, and frequently 
in the Acts. “ John bare witness, saying, I have 
beheld the spirit descending as a dove out of 
heaven: and it abode upon him.” “ And I have 
seen, and have borne witness that this is the 
Son of God” (John 1 : 32, 34). Jesus said to 
Nicodemus, “ We speak that which we know, 
and bear witness of that which we have seen, 
and ye receive not our witness’? (John 3 : 11). 
The idea and the fact of witnessing fittingly lend 
themselves to the genius of the gospel. 


[12] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 





The two terms message and witness are at the 
bottom of Phillips Brooks’ fine definition or de- 
scription of Christian preaching, “‘ truth through 
personality.” Since what he says about them 
furnishes so true insight into his own wonderful 
power as a preacher, is vitally in point touching 
the practical value for current preaching of the 
study of the homiletic words of the New Testa- 
ment, and so exactly expresses my own view, 
I quote his words at some length: * 


There are two aspects of the minister’s work which we 
are constantly meeting in the New Testament. They are 
really embodied in the two words, one of which is “ mes- 
sage,’ and the other is “witness.” ‘“ This is the message 
which we have heard of him and declare unto you,” says 
St. John in his first Epistle. ‘‘ We are witnesses of these 
things,” says St. Peter before the council at Jerusalem. 
In these two words together, I think, we have the fun- 
damental conception of the matter of all Christian preach- 
ing. It is to be a message given to us for transmission, 
but yet a message which we cannot transmit until it has 
entered into our own experience, and we can give our own 
testimony of its spiritual power. The minister who keeps 
the word “message” always written before him, as he 
prepares his sermon in his study, or utters it from the 
pulpit, is saved from the tendency to wanton and wild 
speculation, and from the mere passion of originality. He 
who never forgets that word “ witness,” is saved from the 
unreality of repeating by rote mere forms of statement 
which he has learned as orthodox, but never realized as 
true. If you and I can always carry this double con- 


1“ Vale Lectures on Preaching,” pages 14, 15, 17. 


[13] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





sciousness, that we are messengers, and that we are wit- 
nesses, we shall have in our preaching all the authority 
and independence of assured truth, and yet all the appeal 
and convincingness of personal belief. It will not be we 
that speak, but the spirit of our Father that speaketh in 
us, and yet our sonship shall give the Father’s voice its 
utterance and interpretation to his other children. I think 
that nothing is more needed to correct the peculiar vices 
of preaching which belong to our time than a new preva- 
lence among preachers of this first conception of the truth 
which they have to tell as a message. I am sure that one 
great source of the weakness of the pulpit is the feeling 
among the people that these men who stand up before 
them every Sunday have been making up trains of thought, 
and thinking how they should treat their subject, as the 
phrase runs. There is the first ground of the vicious habit 
that our congregations have of talking about the preacher 
more than they think about the truth. I think that it 
would give to our preaching just the quality which it 
appears to me to most lack now. That quality is breadth. 


In the light of these noble words of his own, 
come with double force the words of his biog- 
rapher, Professor Allen, concerning Phillips 
Brooks’ method of preparing his sermons: ” 


He first opened his soul to the influence of the truth 
which was to constitute his message, devising the most 
forcible method in order to make it appeal to his own 
heart, and then under the influence of this conviction he 
wrote his sermon. He studied its effects upon himself 
before studying how to reach a congregation. This process 
kept him natural, sincere, and unaffected, preserving his 
personality in all that he said, and free from the dangers 
of conventionalism or artificiality. 


3“ Life,” Vol. 2, p. 116, 


[14] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


5. A fifth term of vital significance to the 
Christian preacher is diamarturomai. It is found 
thirteen times, ten of these in the Acts in con- 
nection with Paul’s ministry. In classic Greek 
it means “to call God and man to witness, to 
protest solemnly.” In the New Testament it 
signifies “‘to testify fully, solemnly to testify.” 
As Cremer says, “to affirm a truth with em- 
phasis.” Ellicott remarks concerning the word, 
“The preposition appears primarily to mark the 
presence or intervention of some form of wit- 
ness.” It is used in the communicating of truth 
in circumstances that are peculiarly critical and 
urgent, as, for example, in the parable of Dives 
and Lazarus the word is put into the mouth of 
Dives: “I pray thee, therefore, father, that thou 
wouldest send him (Lazarus) to my father’s 
house; for I have five brethren; that he may tes- 
tify unto them, lest they also come into this place 
Ortorment  a(luke 16 2°27; 28).) .Godet;\in his 
comment on this parable, says that the word sig- 
nifies not only “to declare, but to testify in such 
a way that the truth pierces through the wrap- 
pings of a hardened conscience.” Paul used the 
word three times in his brief address to the Ephe- 
sian elders in Miletus, when he was under deep 
stress of conviction and emotion, when his whole 
personality was profoundly stirred. Vividly re- 


[15] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


calling his ministry in Ephesus, he characterized 
it as ‘‘ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks re- 
pentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord 
Jesus Christ.” ‘“‘ The Holy Spirit testifieth unto 
me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions 
abide me.” “I hold not my life of any account 
as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish 
my course, and the ministry which I received 
from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the 
grace of)God7): (Acts 20°:\21,) 22) 524 aus 
used of Paul’s preaching in Corinth in an ex- 
citing and pressing situation: “ When Silas and 
Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was 
constrained, engrossed with the word, testify- 
ing to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ’ (Acts 
18:5): As Meyer expresses it, )* Begwas 
wholly seized and arrested by the doctrine, so 
that he applied himself to it with assiduity and 
utmost earnestness.’’ The term is used also of 
Paul’s preaching in Rome when a prisoner there 
—another occasion when his whole soul was 
aflame. To the great numbers who came to him 
in his lodging, “ he expounded the matter, testi- 
fying the kingdom of God, and persuading them 
concerning Jesus from the law of Moses and 
from the prophets, from morning till evening ”’ 
(Acts 28 : 23). In preaching the word connotes, 
first, a deep conviction of the reality of the truth, 


[ 16 ] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


secondly, solemnity and earnestness in delivering 
it, as to those whose condition is serious and criti- 
cal, as on the occasion of Peter’s sermon at Pen- 
tecost, “he testified and exhorted them, Save 
yourselves from this crooked generation’”’ (Acts 
2hA0 ): 

It is this living, searching spirit in preaching 
that our age calls for. It is the spirit for which 
Silvester Horne, with moral passion and burning 
eloquence pleads in his fine book, “ The Romance 
of Preaching,” which contains the lectures that 
he delivered in the Yale Divinity School on the 
Lyman Beecher Foundation. He deplores the 
lack of seriousness and earnestness in present- 
day preaching, and boldly declares that if the 
ministry was deeply persuaded of the glory of 
the gospel, and should preach it with souls on 
fire, there would be a repetition of its pristine 
triumph over the hearts of men, and Christian 
preaching would once more assume its throne of 
power. Who can doubt it? When Lockhart, 
Sir Walter Scott’s son-in-law, heard Doctor 
Chalmers preach, he declared that his “ blood- 
earnestness ’’ was the open secret of his wonder- 
ful power. So has it always been, and so will 
it always be. 

6. A sixth homiletic term is dialegomai. It 
occurs thirteen times, ten times concerning Paul 


[17] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 
in the Acts. Its etymological meaning is “to 
pick out, to lay out in thought.” In the New Tes- 
tament it signifies “to reason, to discuss, to ar- 
gue.” Much of Jesus’ presentation of truth, 
particularly to his fiercest enemies, was argumen- 
tative in form, and the record of it leaves the 
impression that it was very earnest and forcible. 
Peter’s address at Pentecost was reasoning based 
on the content of Old Testament Scripture. In 
Paul’s preaching it refers principally to his rea- 
soning with the Jews concerning the death and 
the resurrection of Jesus, as Thayer says, “ with 
disputing prominent.” In Thessalonica “ for 
three Sabbath days in a synagogue of the Jews 
Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 
opening and alleging that it behooved the Christ 
to suffer and to rise again from the dead” (Acts 
17: 1-3). While he was waiting in Athens for 
Silas and Timothy, he “ reasoned in the syna- 
gogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and 
in the market-place every day with them that met 
him” (Acts 17: 16, 17). And beyond doubt 
his stirred feeling thus produced fired his match- 
less address on Mars Hill with an ardor and in- 
tensity of passion that must have added greatly 
to its impressiveness and power. When he 
reached Corinth from Athens, “‘ he reasoned in 
the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded 


[ 18 ] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


Jews and Greeks” (Acts 18: 4). When he 
came with Priscilla and Aquila to Ephesus, he at 
first “entered into the synagogue, and spake 
boldly for the space of three months, reasoning 
and persuading as to the things concerning the 
kingdom of God,” and later he reasoned daily 
“in the school of Tyrannus” (Acts 19: 8, 9). 
Before Felix and Drusilla, his wife, Paul “ rea- 
soned of righteousness, and self-control, and the 
judgment to come” with such power that “ Felix 
was territied “' (Acts 24 : 24, 25). 

This word emphasizes the use of argument in 
establishing and enforcing Christian truth, and 
the value of order, system in preaching. In our 
time when the principles of the Christian religion 
are pretty widely understood, and intrinsically 
commend themselves to the conscience, the judg- 
ment, and the entire personality, argumentation 
in the strict sense is not so much called for. The 
character of the congregation, however, the en- 
vironment, and the occasion should control in 
communicating saving truth in this form. The 
term does have great value today in the direc- 
tion of emphasizing orderliness in public Chris- 
tian discourse, genuine analysis in promoting 
unity and progress of thought. It is sometimes 
charged against current preaching by intellectual 
and thoroughly trained men that it is not con- 


[19 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


vincing. If this is true, it means that the central 
topics of discourse are not so arranged as to com- 
mend them to the logical demand of cultivated 
minds. Genuine analysis and orderly movement 
of ideas is one of the latest accomplishments of 
the preacher. No rhetorical device, no luxuriance 
of illustration can atone for the absence of well- 
ordered thought. Analysis alone does not make 
preaching effective, but it cannot be effective with- 
out it, especially to hearers of logical temper and 
thorough mental training. And certainly no min- 
istry can afford to ignore or neglect them. 

7. A seventh word to be considered is didasko, 
“to teach, to instruct.” It is used ninety-five 
times, didaskalia, twenty-one times, didaké, 
thirty times, didaskalos, fifty-eight times, all the 
forms together, two hundred four times. “In 
the New Testament,’ remarks Cremer, 


kérusso is the standing expression for the proclamation of 
the divine message of salvation, and differs from didaskein 
in that it means simply the making known the announce- 
ment, whereas didaskein denotes continuous instruction 
in the contents and connections of the message. The thing 
aimed at in the use of didaskein is to beget a determining 
of the will by the communication of the knowledge 
spoken of. 


This word is prominently used in connection with 
the ministry of Jesus, as indicating his customary 


[ 20 ] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


method of conveying truth. ‘“ Jesus went about 
all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and her- 
alding the gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 
4: 23). The Sermon on the Mount is a teach- 
ing, as is also the farewell discourse in John’s 
Gospel. (John 14 to 16.) The parables of Jesus, 
which formed so conspicuous a part of his min- 
istry, are didactic in quality. The characteristic 
term applied to him was the term teacher, didas- 
kalos. His mastership over his disciples was a 
teaching mastership. “ Take my yoke upon you, 
and learn of me’ (Matt.:11,: 29)...“ Teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I com- 
manded you” (Matt. 28: 20). It was to bea 
chief function of the Holy Spirit, the other helper 
of the same sort as Jesus himself, who was to take 
his place that “he should teach you all things” 
(John 14: 26). “He shall guide you into all 
the truth”? (John 16: 13). Teaching is the per- 
manent, the universal, and the fruitful method 
of the ministry and of the church in bringing in 
the reign of God. 

This is the outstanding word to denote the 
chief function of the pastoral ministry. It is to 
be a teaching ministry, which signifies that Chris- 
tian truth, the good news that constitutes the 
content of the gospel of Christ, is to be imme- 
diately directed to the understanding of the 


[21] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


hearer, but always with the will ultimately in 
view. Genuine Christian teaching from the pul- 
pit, or elsewhere, is never to be simply and solely 
the conveying of information from one mind to 
another mind, but it is always the communicating 
of knowledge for the spiritual purpose of being 
transmuted into character through the agency of 
the volitional energy. It is this aspect of the 
Christian ministry that is so strongly emphasized 
today. It is, in the main, a good emphasis so 
long as the will is the final goal, although the 
strictly evangelistic function of the ministry and 
of the church is not to be ignored or obscured. 

8. The eighth, and last, word to be considered 
is parakaleo. 

It occurs one hundred five times, paraklesis, 
twenty-nine times, parakletos, five times, in its 
three forms, one hundred fifty-nine times. It 
means, etymologically, “to call hither, to call to 
any one.’’ Inthe New Testament its significance 
is “‘to admonish, encourage, entreat, beseech, 
console, comfort, exhort.” As Cremer says: 

Parakalein is the technical term for a specific kind of 
Christian teaching, namely, that in which beseeching, ad- 


monition, and comfort predominate. It appeals to the will, 
aims at winning, not breaking the will. 


It was used by Peter in his address at Pentecost 
in connection with another word, both of which 


22 ] 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


indicate the tenderness and passion with which 
he must have spoken. ‘“ With many other words 
he testified (diemartureto) and exhorted (pare- 
kalet) them, saying, Save yourselves from this 
crooked generation’ (Acts 2 : 40). When Paul 
was on his last journey to Jerusalem, and had 
reached Czesarea, “ both we, his companions, and 
they of that place besought him not to go up to 
Jerusalem” (Acts, 21 : 12)... [he term is used 
to express his intense desire, his passionate long- 
ing, toward the Church at Rome, just as he had 
concluded the argument of his epistle, and was 
beginning to make practical application of it. “I 
beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies 
of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual 
service’ (Rom. 12: 1). Paul employs the word 
in his tender message to the church in Thessa- 
lonica, “* Wherefore comfort one another with 
these words” (1 Thess. 4: 18), and again in 
his second letter to the Thessalonians, when he 
was pouring out his whole heart to them, “‘ Now 
our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our 
Father, who loved us and gave us eternal com- 
fort and good hope through grace, comfort your 
hearts and establish them in every good work 
anisole, Lhess, 2°:)16, 17)... It-.is the 
term that, in the farewell address of Jesus, is ap- 


[ 23 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


plied five times to the Holy Spirit, parakletos, 
helper, advocate, comforter. One of the most 
marked and impressive usages of the word is in 
the passage in Paul’s second letter to the Co- 
rinthians, in which he applies it to God himseli: 
‘“We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of 
Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we 
beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled 
to; God ule Cork sian 20). 

In some respects this word is the most noble 
and the most significant word in the New Tes- 
tament concerning Christian preaching. It em- 
phasizes tenderness, fervor, power of persuasive 
appeal. ‘As didaskein is intended to reach the 
will through the intellect, parakalein is intended 
to reach the will through the emotions. How 
rich a twofold function of the Christian preacher! 
It is his high mission and privilege to present to 
his fellow men truth that is adapted to reach and 
to sway for righteousness the human personality, 
through the shining pathway of the intellect and 
the feelings. It may not be too much to say that 
a radical defect in current preaching is just that 
quality which is conveyed in the word parakaleo, 
a lack of fervid, pointed influencing of the will 
of the hearer. The more thoughtful preaching is, 
the greater is the warrant, and the louder is the 
call for its use. The mischief is that the preach- 


[ 24 | 


THE MINISTER AS PREACHER 


ers who present to the audience the least sub- 
stance of truth, are in danger of giving it too 
large a place, and that those whose preaching has 
the richest content of truth, are in danger of 
giving it no place at all. Christian comfort, too, 
which this term carries in its meaning, should 
receive more recognition in pastoral preaching in 
this time of stress and strain. Doctor John 
Watson (lan Maclaren), who for a quarter of a 
century ministered to an exceptionally intelligent, 
cultivated, and wealthy congregation, in review- 
ing his ministry, said that if he had it to go over 
again, he would greatly increase the element of 
comfort in his preaching. 

The foregoing qualities of the New Testament 
conception of preaching, which accounted for the 
rapid and wide spread of the gospel when it was 
first proclaimed, are essentially modern. They 
are based on fundamental psychological laws. 
They are as necessary in the ministry of this time 
as of that. And who can doubt that if they 
marked the present-day preaching as they marked 
the apostolic preaching, “‘ the gospel of the glory 
of the blessed God ” would have vast increase of 
power? In view of the central place of these 
qualities in the effective communication of Chris- 
tian truth, they should be assiduously cultivated 
by the ministry. 


[ 25 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


The summary of this study is as follows: 


1. The preacher is a messenger bearing a di- 
‘vine message. 

2. The message is one of good-tidings. 

3. The preacher is to proclaim it publicly, 
widely. 

4. The preacher is to proclaim it out of his 
own experience. 

5. The preacher is to proclaim it with solemn 
emphasis and urgency. 

6. The preacher is to proclaim it with pungency 
and fervid appeal. 

7. The preacher is to establish the claims of 
the message by argument. 

8. The preacher is to be a teacher of the truth 
to the minds, the hearts, and the wills of men. 

These aspects of his preaching require in him- 
self: joyfulness, hopefulness, faithfulness, ur- 
gency, experience, ability to reason, tenderness, 
fervor, aptness to teach. 


[ 26 } 


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THE MINISTER AS LEADER 











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THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


“AN army is as good as its officers.” A church 
is as good as its minister. The teaching of the 
New Testament is clear and emphatic that the 
pastor of a church is its official leader, and in 
what that leadership consists. Paul in his first 
letter to the Thessalonians writes: ‘‘ Brothers, 
we beg you to respect those who are working 
among you, presiding over you in the Lord and 
maintaining discipline: hold them in special es- 
teem and affection for the sake of their work ” 
(1 Thess. 5 : 12, Moffati’s translation). The 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says: 
“Obey your leaders, submit to them, for they 
are alive to the interests of your souls, as men 
who will have to account for their trust. Let 
their work be a joy to them and not a grief— 
which would be a loss to yourselves” (Heb. 
13: 17, Moffatt’s translation). 

The churches of our time do not honor the 
position of the pastoral ministry and recognize 
its leadership as was done in the New Testament 
period, and consequently the work of the 
churches is not so efficient as it should be and 
could become. There is need of a fresh emphasis 


[29 | 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


in the consciousness of the churches of the legiti- 
mate function of the pastoral ministry. The pas- 
tors themselves need a deepening conviction of 
the scope and the responsibility of their leader- 
ship. They should, however, avoid asserting their 
leadership in a dictatorial spirit, but should exer- 
cise it rather in a spirit of service for the largest 
weal of all the members of the church and for 
the church’s most effective furtherance of the 
kingdom. What has been said of Jefferson as a 
political leader, probably the most astute our 
country has had, may with equal pertinency be 
said of the pastor as a spiritual leader: 

The people had not the slightest notion that they were 


being guided. For Jefferson never used the accent of 
command, or assumed the bearing of a leader. 


So Carl Schurz said of Lincoln, “ He directed 
while appearing to obey,” and so Dawson, his bi- 
ographer, remarks concerning Bishop Hanning- 
ton, he possessed 

skill in making people do just as he wished by rendering 


it impossible that they could do any other thing to their 
own satisfaction. 


What is the specific scope of the leadership 
of the modern pastoral ministry? When can it 
be truthfully said that the function of a pastoral 
ministry is fulfilled? In other words, what con- 


| 30 | 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


stitutes pastoral success? Every one who either 
is, or expects to be, a pastor of a church should 
squarely confront this question and try to an- 
swer it. It is to be feared that all too many en- 
ter and continue in the Christian ministry with 
indefinite or erroneous views of the main ends to 
be pursued and achieved in the pastoral relation. 
A church may have a full treasury, a pastor may 
have overflowing congregations, his name may 
be often on admiring lips, conversions may be 
frequent, and yet he may fundamentally fail in 
fulfilling the mind of Christ in putting him into 
the pastorate. 

The final test of success is the developing of the 
church into a strong and efficient Christian force. 
With whatever else done, and this undone, a pas- 
toral ministry is a failure. There seems to be a 
notion abroad, which is too often held by minis- 
ters themselves, that the chief function of a church 
is to provide the preacher a platform from which 
he may address and influence the community. 
This is an erroneous idea. The community is 
not present to listen to him. Only a small seg- 
ment of it is there. The minister of a church 
does not, cannot, directly reach the general pub- 
lic with his message. He reaches the public in- 
directly through his church and congregation. 
“The pastor belongs to the community through 


[31] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


his church.” Principal Selbie, of Mansfield Col- 
lege, Oxford, England, 

said to a gathering of theological students that what would 
matter in their future lives was the work they did in their 


own churches, that the work they did outside their churches 
would amount to very little. 


The pastor builds his ministry into the church, 
and the church builds it into the community. 
When Doctor Talmage was pastor in Brooklyn 
he preached to a peripatetic audience of vast 
numbers. But when he ended his ministry there 
he left behind him no church. Henry Ward 
Beecher, on the other hand, preached to great 
crowds and built a church of mighty influence. 
Lyman Abbott, who was Mr. Beecher’s imme- 
diate successor, bears this witness, 

When after Mr. Beecher’s death, I went to Plymouth 
Church, I found it a working church, with two branches, 
each well equipped and organized for religious work, and 


more than three hundred of its members active in some 
regular form of church work. 


Evangelism is rightly considered a leading end 
of a ministry and of a church. Forces must be 
recruited before they can be drilled. But evan- 
gelism is not the final aim of a pastoral minis- 
try. Perhaps the outstanding weakness of 
the Christian churches today is that they are 
more eager to gain converts, to multiply numbers, 


[ 32 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





than they are to train them into a strong, sym- 
metrical, and efficient body. 

It is pertinent, then, to inquire wherein specifi- 
cally consists the development of a church? 


I. THE BUILDING OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 


At the bottom of all, and in some sense includ- 
ing all, is the building of distinctively Chris- 
tian character in the entire church. 


W hat is the Trend of Scripture Teaching Con- 
cerning Christian Character? 


An attentive reading of the New Testament 
impresses one with the fulness of its teaching on 
Christian character. The sanctification of be- 
lievers, to use the New Testament phrase, is its 
central theme. This is true both in view of the 
amount of space given to its consideration, and 
of the relation of the other truths to this one. 
The doctrines of the incarnation, the atonement, 
the Holy Spirit, regeneration, justification, are 
all in the interest of this doctrine. They are sim- 
ply provisions for making men holy, for building 
character. Even the doctrines of foreordination 
and election, which have been so hotly argued by 
theologians, and a stumbling-block to many, are 
turned to severely practical account. ‘‘ Whom he 


Pokey 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


foreknew he also foreordained to be conformed 
to the image of his Son”’ (Rom. 8 : 29). “ Even 
as he chose us in him before the foundation of 
the world that we should be holy and without 
blemish before him in love, having foreordained 
us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ 
unto himself’? (Eph. 1 : 4, 5). Not hard, bare 
doctrine, but doctrine as the bone, sinew, and 
nerve of character. Why is doctrinal preaching 
synonymous with dryness? It is because doc- 
trines are too often preached unscripturally. 
They are presented in an abstract, argumentative 
way, divorced from personality in God, in Christ, 
in man. When kept in the atmosphere of the 
Bible, doctrinal preaching is instinct with life, 
and reality, and power, and it is popularly inter- 
esting. People like to listen to it and call for it. 
Indeed, in the best sense, all Christian preaching 
is doctrinal preaching. The following additional 
passages bear their witness to what has just been 
said on the preeminence of character-building in 
the work of the pastoral ministry. They contain 
the flower of Christianity. They tell us why we 
have a gospel. The ground truth in them all is 
the ground truth in God’s revelation to men, viz., 
that they may become like him in ethical charac- 
ter. The passages are: The Sermon on the 
Mount, Matthew, chapters 5 to 7; Romans 5 : 


[ 34 | 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





1-5; chapter 12; 1 Corinthians 13 : 1-7; Gala- 
fntisa5 822; 235 te phesians.2 +) 1054/2: 5-325: 6: 
10-20; Colossians 3 : 12-17; 1 Timothy 4: It- 
VOR oat i103 2) Peter 1}: 3-7) 

For the pastor in his relation to success in 
character-building no other passage, perhaps, 1s 
so significant as the one in Ephesians 4 : 8-13: 
“When he ascended on high, he gave gifts unto 
men. And he gave to some to be apostles; and 
~ some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, 
pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the 
saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the 
building up of the body of Christ; till we all at- 
tain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowl- 
edge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Christ.’ Paul’s sublimest epistle, that to the 
Ephesians, is burdened with this kind of teach- 
ing. It is worthy to receive far more attention 
than it does in pastoral preaching. It touches 
the high-water mark of Christianity as a maker 
of character. There we have the majestic aim 
of every Christian pastorate. May we not say 
with Paul, as he keenly felt the responsibility of 
his work, with some fresh sense of its meaning, 
“Who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 
2:16). It will be observed that the most of 
the foregoing passages are from Paul’s letters. 


[ 35 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


It has puzzled some thoughtful students of the 
New Testament that Paul, whose oral ministry 
was so largely evangelistic, as he himself said 
that he was eager not to build on any other man’s 
foundation, but to preach where Christ had not 
been named, should, in his writings, have little 
or nothing to say of evangelism, but so much to 
say of edification. It shows that he had a clear, 
deep insight into the true function of a church, 
that the church is the chief evangelizing agency. 


What is the Relation of the Minister to Char- 
acter-building? 

It is fourfold: 

First, he must be intelligent touching the prom- 
inence given in the Scriptures to this aspect of 
his work. : 

Secondly, he must be familiar with the por- 
trait of the Christian man as limned in the New 
Testament, which is as follows. The mere nam- 
ing of the traits of a Christian personality shows 
how rich it is, and how fruitful is the opportu- 
nity of the minister in building it. They are 
given with no careful attempt at classifying 
them. 

(1) The three fontal virtues, out of which 
flow all the other virtues: faith—as belief or 
conviction, as insight, and as trust; hope—the 


[ 36 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


expectation of good for time and for eternity; 
love—love for God and Christ and Christian 
brethren, and wide-reaching love for all men, 
friends and enemies, expressed by such terms as 
phileo, tender affection; philadelphia, brotherly 
affection for fellow Christians; agapé, wishing 
and striving for the well-being of mankind, the 
love that has in it a pronounced ethical and voli- 
tional strain. Browning says: 


Love, hope, fear, faith—these make humanity: 
These are its sign and note and character. 


(2) The more rugged virtues such as the 
unique cluster that emphasizes the ethical element 
in character, righteousness, holiness, godliness, 
piety, purity, self-sacrifice, self-denial, which 
means, not denying oneself things that one would 
like to have, but renouncing one’s selfish, sinful 
self, “‘ the negative side of the command to love’’; 
self-control, virtue or manliness, ‘‘a strenuous 
tone and vigor of mind,” out of which fruit cour- 
age, stedfastness, heroism. 

(3) The more gentle virtues (what used to be 
termed the passive virtues, a designation now not 
favored by theologians as being a misnomer, 
since all virtues have in them a positive, active 
quality; yet the phrase possesses a valuable sug- 
gestion) : humility, meekness, long-suffering, pa- 


[ 37 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





tience, forgiveness, cheerfulness, peace, joy, 
thankfulness, trustfulness toward others, kind- 
ness, contentment, gentleness, tenderness, sym- 
pathy. 

In noting this list of Christian virtues, one is 
impressed with their number, and variety, with 
the wealth of the content of Christian character, 
and the differentiation between distinctively 
Christian manhood and mere morality. 

Thirdly, The pastor is to recognize the fact 
of the lack of rich, well-balanced Christian char- 
acter in the members of the church. 

Fourthly, The pastor is to recognize the diffi- 
culty of building Christian character in believers, 
and the necessity of continuous, persistent, and 
well-directed efforts in this direction. These ef- 
forts consist in the inculcation in the pulpit, in 
the mid-week meetings, in religious education, in 
the church school, in young people’s organiza- 
tions, and in pastoral visiting, of both the more 
active and the more passive virtues of character 
as they were embodied in Jesus and as they should 
appear in every follower of his. If the pastor 
has made a careful analysis of the contents of 
Christlike character, and has classified them, if 
he is intelligent as to the mutual influence of trait 
upon trait, and is wise in teaching his people con- 
cerning them, he will find himself a wise master- 


[ 38 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





builder, and his ministry will bear rich fruit in 
choicest Christian character. 

It may have a strange sound in this strenuous 
age, to insist that emphasis should fall upon the 
gentler virtues in character-building. Yet this is 
true. Doctor Bushnell, in his sermon on “ The 
Efficiency of the Passive Virtues,’ * names the 
following virtues as belonging “ to the more pas- 
sive side of character,” 
meekness, gentleness, forbearance, forgiveness, the endur- 


ance of wrong without anger or resentment, contentment, 
quietness, peace, patience, 


and says of them that they 


are often the most efficient and operative powers that a 
true Christian wields, inasmuch as they carry just that 
kind of influence which other men are least apt and least 
able to resist. 


That was certainly true of Jesus. His more 
passive virtues were the central glory of his char- 
acter. He largely won his victory in both his life 
and death through their efficiency. And his con- 
quest over men ever since has consisted pretty 
fully in exalting and empowering those traits of 
character which pagan peoples have despised as 
weak and servile, and yet to which they have ul- 
timately yielded in Christ’s conquest over them, 


1“ Sermons for the New Life,” p. 399. 


[ 39 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





since these traits are not weak, but strong. It 
requires genuine fortitude, courage, heroism to 
maintain the more passive virtues. 

This further word of their value may be said, 
that they offer an excellent opportunity to the 
great majority of Christians who feel that their 
lives are narrow and monotonous. They can 
build in their lowly lot, in the drudgery of their 
occupations, in the work-shop and in the home, | 
that kind of character which made Jesus illus- 
trious and influential, and which adorns every- 
day life and duties. Jeremy Taylor says, ‘“‘ Half 
the duty of a Christian in this life consists in the 
exercisé of passive graces.” 


Il. Tur DEVELOPING OF THE CORPORATE LIFE 
OF A CHURCH 


A church is something more and other than a 
mere collection of unrelated individuals. It is 
a sort of spiritual entity of its own. A company 
of soldiers fighting together is totally different 
from the same soldiers on isolated picket duty. 
The company has a life, a force that influences 
its individual members far more than an indi- 
vidual member influences the company. So it 
is with a true church. There is an esprit de 
corps, a spirit that animates the entire body, 


[ 40 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


which does not belong to the isolated, individual 
members. 


Practical Indications of the Absence of the 
Corporate Life of the Churches 


In some churches, especially the smaller ones, 
individualism reigns. There is an excess of one- 
man power; one man, influential because of 
money or from some other cause, practically rules 
the church. Whatever he says is done. 

In other churches small cliques, made up of 
congenial persons, stand apart from the other 
members. 

In yet other churches, in which the two fore- 
going conditions do not exactly exist, there is 
a lack of fusion of the members into a single col- 
lective Christian body. There is no real church 
life. The consequence is there is no heart to 
work. The church has dropped into a chronic state 
of discouragement. A constant disintegration of 
force is going on. A kind of dry rot has fast- 
ened itself upon the Christian body. The church 
is steadily losing ground in the community, both 
in point of numbers and influence. If any new 
members are gained, a feeling of isolation pos- 
sesses them. It seems to them that they have 
joined nothing in particular. Now and then in- 
dividual Christians may speak to them. But 


[ 41 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


they do not feel the touch and the thrill of the 
church as an organic body spreading about them 
a warm, welcoming, enswathing spiritual at- 
mosphere. 

The absence of the corporate life is sometimes 
manifested by loyalty to the pastor rather than 
to the church. The people that a pastor brings 
into a church are built around him, and not into 
the church. As long as he remains, they remain, — 
are interested, and to a degree are active in 
Christian work. But when he goes, if they do 
not leave the church, they are dissatisfied, find 
fault, and become inactive. They do not feel 
that they are a part of a living organism, breath- 
ing its spirit, and pledged to the enriching of its 
life. I believe this to be a true description of 
not a few churches. Now fundamental in a suc- 
cessful pastoral ministry is the ability to infuse 
into a church a genuine esprit de corps, to weld 
together into a union of a Christlike temper the 
entire Christian body. Perhaps it is the central 
need today in many churches throughout the 
country that they shall become possessed by this 
“animating spirit’? of a collective body until 
every member owns and feels the truth of the 
apostle’s statement, “ We who are many, are one 
body in Christ, and severally members one of 
another’ (Rom. 12 %'5); 


[42 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


Paul’s Example as a Promoter of the Collective 


Life of a Church 


He is an excellent model for the pastor in this 
vital and difficult work. Although he was not 
a pastor, but an apostle and an evangelist herald- 
ing the gospel where Christ had not been named, 
the idea of church building in the foregoing 
sense of it was prominent in his mind and exten- 
sively practised in his ministry. He was, in very 
truth, what he styled himself, a “ wise master- 
builder.” His second missionary journey, partly, 
and his third missionary journey, largely, were 
given to the task of confirming the churches he 
had already founded. He established them as 
churches, endeavoring to make them strong in 
the unity and inspiration of a collective life. He 
has left a fine example of this in his dealing with 
the church in Corinth. How easy would it have 
been for him to put himself at the head of the 
most influential party there! But how did he 
conduct himself? Hear him: “ Now this I say, 
that every one of you saith: I am of Paul; and 
I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? 
or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” 
Cr Cor. 13722) 13): And agains “ For while 
one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of 


[ 43 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


Apollos, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, 
and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you 
believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave 
the increase. For we are laborers together with 
God. You are God/s busiding (4 Cores: 


4-6, 9) ‘ 


Paul’s Teaching on the Developing of the Cor- 
porate Life of a Church 


Paul’s teaching is at one with his example in 
this matter. He speaks frequently in his letters 
of edifying, building the church, and always with 
this ruling conception of compacting it together 
as a whole into a unity of life that shall fill 
every part. Dean Howson says’ of Paul’s use 
of the term “ edify,”’ 


In Paul edify is always a social word having regard to the 
mutual improvement of the members of the churches and 
the growth of the whole body in faith and love. 


In this sense of the word he writes to those ex- 
ercising spiritual gifts among the Corinthian 
Christians, “ Since you are zealous of spiritual 
gifts, seek that you may abound to the edifying 
of the church” (1 Cor. 14: 12). To the Thes- 
salonians he writes, “ Edifying one another”’ 


2“* Metaphors of St. Paul,’ p. 27. 


[ 44] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


(i) Thess. 5: 11). The entire: Epistle to, the 
Ephesians is built around this conception con- 
cerning church building, and it is this that gives 
it its distinctive glory. 

“ Another phrase,” says Prof. W. A. Stevens, 


conveys still more accurately Paul’s conception of the or- 
ganic aspects of the Christian life, “many, yet members 
of one body.” Paul perpetually recurs to the figure of the 
body, the human body, as illustrative of the unity and 
multiplicity of the spiritual life pervading each commu- 
nity, and the entire community of believers. The passages 
in which this metaphor is most prominent are to be found 
in the twelfth of Romans, the twelfth of First Corinthians, 
and the fourth of Ephesians. The human body ranks high- 
est of all in the scale of organisms. Its symmetry of 
structure, perfection of mechanism, and delicate adjust- 
ment of functions, are all suggestive of practical truths, 
which the apostle never wearied of reiterating. The fig- 
ure is a favorite one with him, and in the variety of its 
ethical application peculiarly his own. 


In a spiritual community the whole body pulsates 
with a common and distributive life. Every part 
is essential to the whole, and the whole to every 
part. 

This then is Paul’s view of developing a strong 
and efficient church. That pastor who can do 
this thing is master of the situation. A Christian 
body thus compacted together, and constrained 
by a collective spirit to purity of Christian life, 
and to Christian endeavor, is in very truth the 


[45 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


work of a wise master-builder. Such a church, 
large or small, in city or country, will send its 
influence to the ends of the earth. The pastor 
who helps build such a church does a noble and 
enduring work. 


What are Some of the Marks of the Corporate 
Life of a Church? 


A spirit of brotherhood. The first condition 
of the existence of a Christian church is that 
Christian love shall weld all together in one com- 
mon body in the Lord. 

A spirit of enthusiasm for the collective lite 
and influence of the church, a sort of pride that 
the church, as a church, shall be pure, shall be, 
respected in the community, and shall be a true 
candle of the Lord, burning and shining in the 
midst of the surrounding darkness. 

A spirit of courage, that will make the church 
heroic and persistent in the cause of the Master, 
that spirit which lack of immediate success, 
which opposition, which contumely, have no 
power to dampen, a spirit that will press right 
on in the Lord’s work, leaving visible results to 
him as outside of the power of the church. 

A spirit of conquest such as Caleb showed 
when he entered the land of promise, and such 
as Paul felt and expressed when he declared, 


[ 46 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


“We are more than conquerors through him who 
loved us” (Rom. 8 : 37). 


What is the Minister’s Function Touching the 
Corporate Life of the Church? 


How can he breathe into the whole body of 
his people such a spirit as this? While it is 
difficult to give a practically helpful answer to 
an. inquiry so vital, the following suggestions are 
offered : 

First, the minister himself must be a man 
brotherly, enthusiastic, courageous, expectant, if 
he would inspire the church with these qualities. 
They must make themselves felt in his preach- 
ing, in his conduct of various meetings, in his 
personal contact with his people, in the organiz- 
ing and administering of the work of the church. 
In order to do this his personal hold on Christ 
as his Lord must be unwavering and strong. He 
must believe, too, with all his heart that Christ 
has a mission for that particular church and for 
him as its pastor and leader. 

Secondly, he must love the church as a church, 
and must give himself to furthering the welfare 
of the entire body. He is to be no man’s man, 
but every man’s man. He is his Lord’s servant 
to all, pledged to promote the interests of all as 
common members of the one holy enterprise. 


EARaa 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


Thirdly, he must keep before his people the 
New Testament conception of a Christian church 
in its unity, its spirit, its work. For the secur- 
ing of these aims with the largest measure of 
success, there must be a pastorate of reasonable 
length. It takes time to compass the best re- 
sults in every field of endeavor. The Christian 
pastorate is no exception. The minister who, 
through the years, is striving to develop the cor- 
porate self-consciousness of a church, is doing 
one of the most valuable pieces of Christian 
work. 


Il]. THe DEVELOPING OF THE CHURCH IN 
PERSONAL CHRISTIAN ACTION 


A vigorous corporate life, a healthy esprit de 
corps is an essential condition of church activity. 
That naturally leads to this. So that the pastor 
who has succeeded in arousing enthusiasm among 
his people has, to a good degree, solved the prob- 
lem of utilizing the Christian forces under his 
direction in practical duties. But after all, this 
enthusiasm needs guidance. Otherwise it may 
work blindly, and so not to advantage. 

There are two kinds of personal activity that 
a wise and skilful pastoral leadership of our 
time will stress. 


[ 48 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


The first is prayer, individual and collective. 
The church of today is on its feet, and not on 
its knees. It faces manward rather than God- 
ward. It is a talking church, and not a praying 
church. In any ordinary church five men are 
likely to be found who can talk well, to one man 
who can pray well. Indeed, many a pastor is 
afraid to give the bulk of the hour in a midweek 
meeting to prayer lest the meeting will be dull. 
And it probably will be. In not a few cases the 
term prayer-meeting is a misnomer. It is a talk- 
ing meeting rather. This lack of praying power 
in the Christian church is probably its radical 
weakness. To this in no small measure is to be 
attributed the leanness of the churches and the 
relatively small number of conversions through 
their agency. Modern churches are on their feet 
not only to speak, but to do. Never before in 
all their history have the churches been so thor- 
oughly and wisely organized for work as at the 
present time. Large movements of varied sorts 
are unprecedented. But these alone can never 
bring in the kingdom. God’s power as well as 
man’s must be enlisted. And this comes through 
prayer. On one occasion Jesus’ disciples asked 
him to teach them to pray. That is a petition 
that the modern church sorely needs to make. 

There must be more prayer in the churches— 


[ 49 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


more private, more public prayer, for the pastor 
and his work. Dr. Robert F.. Horton, of Lon- 
don, has made the following request of church- 
members: 


Give ten minutes on Saturday night to definite prayer for 
your minister, that his word may come with power, that 
souls may be saved, that your church may be quickened. 
Give yourselves wholly to that prayer for ten minutes; 
wait upon God, wrestle, believe. Then you will see some- 
thing remarkable. You will think it a change in your 
minister; probably it will be a change in you. 


More prayer for the coming of the kingdom 
near and far; more prayer for the increase of the 
Christian ministry. The churches have practi- 
cally forgotten, not to say, ignored, one of 
Christ’s greatest commands, “ Pray the Lord of 
the harvest that he send forth, thrust forth, la- 
borers into his harvest’”’ (Matt. 9 : 38). More 
prayer for the indwelling and working of the 
Holy Spirit in the churches; more prayer for 
the sense of God, which is the inspiration and ° 
the guaranty of success in Christian work. The 
Master has said that “ men ought always to pray, 
and not to faint’ (Luke 18: 1). And Paul has 
said, “ Pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5 : 17); 
“Continue stedfastly (persistently) in prayer ” 
(Col. 4: 2). Prayer should be the habit, the 
temper of the church. It is literally true to 


[ 50] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


affirm that, as far as man’s agency goes, prayer 
is at the bottom of everything in the holiness and 
the increase of the church. 

The minister who develops in his people a spirit 
of prayer, and wisely directs it as to its proper 
objects cannot fail to have a signal success. It 
is a chief duty and opportunity awaiting the 
present-day ministry. 

The second form of Christian action in which 
the minister should direct the members of the 
church is personal effort in behalf of the un- 
saved—the new evangelism, as it is now termed, 
although it is as old as Christianity and the Chris- 
tian church. 

Activity, as already suggested, would be gen- 
erally regarded as one of the marked character- 
istics of churches at the present time. There is 
a kind of wide-awakeness, a sort of up-and-doing 
temper among them. It is the day of the lay- 
man as in no previous time except the first cen- 
tury or two of organized Christianity. But the 
activity of the churches is public rather than pri- 
vate, general rather than personal. It is the day 
of Christian enterprises of various sorts. In 
some cases these are vigorously pushed and often 
with excellent results. Evangelistic and philan- 
thropic endeavors on a somewhat large scale are 
engaged in by not a few. But personal, hand-to- 


[51] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


hand, heart-to-heart work for the Master by the 
rank and file of church-members is singularly 
lacking. The number, even in the large churches, 
that engage in this kind of Christian work is 
meager enough. Many are willing to give finan- 
cial support to an evangelistic movement with 
others to do the personal work, as measuring the 
extent of their responsibility for the progress of 
the Lord’s kingdom. It may be fairly questioned 
if the ability of the churches in personal evan- 
gelism is in excess of their ability in prayer. The 
number of members of American churches who 
have tact in approaching the impenitent with the 
gospel message, and skill in leading to saving be- 
lief in Jesus Christ, is wretchedly small. This is 
to be deplored in view of the fact that the unique 
usefulness, both direct and indirect, of such per- 
sonal action is far-reaching. | 

The hearts of the unbelieving are frequently 
touched and won by the closeness, the reality, 
the warmth, the persuasiveness of the personal 
appeal. We must come to the conclusion that the 
world is not to be conquered for Jesus Christ by 
the ordained ministry alone, noble and useful as 
their labors are. His kingdom in its widest ex- 
tent and greatest power must come, as it did in 
the earliest time, by the enthusiastic, persistent 
endeavor of the members of Christian churches. 


[ 52] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


These, constrained by a consuming, heroic zeal, 
such as marked the Crusades of the Middle Ages, 
mistaken and ill-directed as that movement was, 
and going forth to persuade one by one the mul- 
titudes of their fellows, would do more than all 
other kinds of activity combined in bringing man- 
kind under the speedy sway of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Any community that is blessed with a 
church containing any considerable number of 
such is thrice blessed. 

Besides, the reflex influence of personal labor 
upon those Christians who engage in it, is very 
great. Indeed, there are some qualities of Chris- 
tian character, and these among the most essen- 
tial that cannot thrive without it. The more 
rugged and telling of these, such as courage and 
heroism, are especially dependent for their ex- 
istence and vigor upon personal evangelistic 
labor. 

Every wise and efficient pastor will strive, 
through every agency within his sphere and un- 
der his control, to stimulate and to direct his 
church toward such practical, personal action in 
prayer and effort. Thus he will reach by proxy 
a multitude of souls. No one can tell the wide- 
spread fruitage of such a pastorate. It is one of 
the hardest tasks a pastor has to perform. But 
he is not to be excused from trying on that ac- 


[ 53 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


count. He will gradually acquire skill by prac- 
tise, and will at last be surprised that he can do 
so much. 


lV. DEVELOPING THE CHURCH IN ITS RELATION 
TO THE FAMILY 


The church and the family are in vital alliance. 
The church is a social unit, so is the family. In 
the family church, so called—and most churches 
are yet family churches—the family attends the 
services as a family, not as unrelated, isolated 
individuals. [he larger social unit, the church, 
is, in a measure, if not in the main, composed of 
the smaller social units, families, and in a sense 
distinct and important enough to call for large 
recognition. Families sit together, worship to- 
gether, listen together, act together. People go to 
church from the atmosphere of the family. They 
go from church to the atmosphere of the family. 
It is the family at church. It is the church in 
the family. Thus the family idea is strong in 
the church. Many persons love to attend a par- 
ticular church because the family in past genera- 
tions has done so. With some this is almost a 
sacred feeling which can be easily and profitably 
appealed to and it should be recognized and wisely 
used by the minister. 


[ 54 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


How May the Family Receive Ministry from 
the Church? 


1. [The family should receive increase of atten- 
tion in the content of current pastoral preaching, 
which is an agency of the church. How seldom, 
it is to be feared, does the pastor in pre- 
paring his sermons have a clear, strong conscious- 
ness of the family life that he is to address, as 
he does of the life of individuals whom he ex- 
pects to hear him! How seldom, even, is direct 
reference made to the family as an institution! 
How slightly does the sermon seem to be colored 
and toned by the family idea, and how slender 
is the impression that the discourse is being 
preached in the family atmosphere! With the 
pastor the individual, and not the family, is likely 
to be the unit of the audience. Now in a sense 
this, from the nature of the case, must be so. 
For first and last there are in many, in all, 
congregations, a goodly number of persons that 
are hardly influenced at all by the family tie to 
attend the services. They are there as unrelated 
individuals. Such would be the case, for in- 
stance, with a church situated in the midst of a 
student population. Besides, responsibility touch- 
ing Christian living rests, in final analysis, with 
the individual. Persons are converted one by 


[95] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


one, not in groups. Each must make the great 
decision for himself. Yet in view of the fact 
that the family idea and the family feeling must 
be strong even in those who are far from home, 
and are alone at church, if they are addressed 
as a constituent of the family unit, they will be 
likely to be moved to response to the preacher’s 
message. A pastor of a large, popular church, 
where a great number attended individually and 
alone, was wont, if he found his hearers some- 
what inattentive, vividly and tenderly to describe 
the family homestead and the life of childhood 
in it, and invariably attention was restored, and 
the tender feelings of many moved at the mem- 
ory of the joys of youth in the old family home. 
Thus hospitable welcome was given to the mes- 
sage. 

Preaching, then, in family churches should 
give larger place than is usually allowed to sub- 
jects that directly and vitally concern the family 
and the home, such as: the mutual relation of 
the church and the family; the reciprocal rela- 
tion of the members of the family, and the unique 
opportunity it offers for the development of some 
of the finest traits of character, and for the in- 
terchange of self-denying ministry; family wor- 
ship; family morals; the family as the unit of 
the state and, as Dr. S. W. Dike has said, “ the 


[ 56 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


relation of the virtues and culture of the home 
to public morality, to industrial welfare, to edu- 
cational progress, and to good citizenship.” 

2. Not only the content of pastoral preaching, 
but the element of appeal in it may be profitably 
enlisted in the interests of the family. What may 
be termed the family motive can and should be 
addressed for the procuring of suitable action 
on the part of the different members of the fam- 
ily group. The head of a family, for instance, 
should be a Christian because he is the head of a 
family. For family life and ministry, in their 
many-sided features, are greatly hindered and 
crippled if the husband and father is not in a 
position to fulfil his normal function in develop- 
ing the Christian character, and in directing the 
Christian activities of the household. The 
mother and the children should be Christians in 
order to help one another in the spiritual life. 
Appeal can be made also on the ground that the 
family, as a social unit, cannot be fully service- 
able to the state if some of its members are not 
in a position, because non-Christian, to promote 
the largest weal of a Christian civilization. 

3. In the less formal gatherings of the church, 
in the midweek service of prayer and conference, 
the family should receive recognition. Indeed, 
large place should be given to it in the devotional, 


[ 57] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


the didactic, and the evangelistic use of the meet- 
ing. So far as possible the attendance should 
be a family attendance. If the family is well 
represented in parents and children, and if they 
sit together, the good influence of the assembly 
is the more fully and vitally transferred to the 
home. For a time at least the influence of the 
service is felt by the household. In the midweek 
meeting the evangelistic appeal can be legitimately 
and persuasively directed to the motive of family 
life in inducing the older and the younger mem- 
bers to enter upon a Christian career. The same 
principle applies to the sessions of the Sunday 
school,.and to the varied gatherings of young 
people. 

4. That branch of ministerial work commonly 
designated as peculiarly pastoral, the pastor in 
visiting his people, offers a noble opportunity for 
developing a healthy, rich family life. He calls 
upon, not only the individual members of the 
family as isolated units, but the family as such. 
He is under the home roof. He is in contact 
with the family as a social unit. His presence in 
the home will be felt by those members of the 
family that are absent. He should, therefore, 
keep quick and vigorous in his’ consciousness that 
he is there for calling out the best service of each 
member of the family, and of the family as a 


[ 58] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





whole. In his conversation, in his prayer, if he 
offers one, the family should have suitable place. 

5. Lhe church in ordering its services should 
give to the family the opportunity of fulfilling 
its normal function. The sphere of the one 
_ should not cross the sphere of the other. Each 
is a divine institution. Each has its unique min- 
istry. The church can do what the family cannot 
do, and the family can do what the church cannot 
do. They are the two sides of the same shield, 
the two halves of one sphere. The most thought- 
ful social students are coming to see this. And 
there is a growing conviction among them that, 
in some places at least, and in some family 
churches, especially those that are highly organ- 
ized, and are, therefore, rapidly multiplying their 
services, the church is trenching upon the family, 
and robbing it of its rightful and obligatory min- 
istry asa family. Is there not reason for sound- 
ing in the ears of some churches that command 
of the decalogue, “Thou shalt not steal’’? It 
may be seriously questioned if the church is giv- 
ing the home its fair share of opportunity and 
responsibility as an institution equally divine 
with the church, adequately to perform its func- 
tion. The church services often seem to be held, 
and the church work organized, on the basis of 
the individual as the only unit for which it is 


[ 59] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


concerned and for which it provides. Small re- 
gard seems to be had for the claims of the fam- 
ily. We hear the call for the restoration of fam- 
ily worship and for Christian instruction in the 
home. Is the church leaving a margin of time 
for both, or either? As matter of fact the chil- 
dren of our day receive in the church about all 
of their religious teaching. The church has 
largely drawn it from the family, and the fam- 
ily has permitted it to do so. Is it difficult to 
see that in the end the interfering with the fam- 
ily as a school for childhood must work serious 
and lasting harm? More broadly viewed, the 
family and the home have a sacred ministry that 
the church cannot perform—the ripening and en- 
riching of those qualities of character that are 
uniquely the product of the family, such as: the 
mutual affection of parents and children; the re- 
ciprocal service among the various members of 
the family: that indefinable, beautiful, fragrant, 
altruistic spirit which forms the atmosphere, the 
charm of family life. Like all choicest things, 
these are growths, slow growths at that, in the 
most favorable environment. Of all the days of 
the week the Sabbath Day, the Lord’s Day par 
excellence, with its hallowed associations and be- 
nign influences, is most favorable. The church 
should be swift to remember this and should act 


[ 60 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


accordingly. There is another consideration that 
should be borne in mind. Men are pressed and 
driven by the demands of modern business. 
Many a father for six days of the week scarcely 
sees his growing children from year’s end to 
year’s end. Sunday is the only day that he is 
privileged to be with them, and every child needs 
the particular kind of influence that a father 
wields. The church should so order its services 
and make its appointments as to give him this 
opportunity. Professor Coe has said,’ 

If a choice must be made between living with one’s 
children and any competing interest, whether the increase 
of wealth, social engagements, even philanthropic and re- 


ligious activities, there should be no hesitation in choosing 
in favor of one’s children. 


Of course, no hard and fast rule can be laid 
down for every church. Account must be had 
of the sort of church concerned, the special work 
it does, and the kind of community in which it 
is situated. But the church is not to forget that 
the family has claims as well as the community. 
And the church should carefully and conscien- 
tiously consider them. 

6. There is one form of cooperation between 
the church and the family, happily on the in- 
crease, that cannot be too warmly commended— 


3“ Education in Religion and Morals,” p. 282. 


[ 61 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





the home department of the Sunday school, es- 
pecially in sparsely settled districts in which some 
families live at a distance from the church build- 
ing. There is a marked double advantage in this 
service. The church, through its Sunday school, 
reaches out its hand and heart to the family, and 
the family has the benefit of studying Bible truth 
under its own roof and about its own hearthstone. 
This is a beautiful and useful meeting of the two 
social units, the church and the family; thus both 
church and family have each their ministry, and 
by the union and under the sanction of each. 

Thus through preaching, in its content and 
in its appeal, through the midweek meeting, and 
the young people’s societies, through the pastor’s 
contact with his people, especially in the family 
and the home, through the ordering of the pub- 
lic services of the church and through the agency 
of the home department of the Sunday school, the 
pastor of our time should bear prominently in 
mind the vital tie that exists between the two 
social forces, the church and the family, and the 
mutual influence of each upon each, and he should 
strive to keep their separate and their common 
agency at the highest pitch of usefulness. When 
this is achieved, each in its peculiar sphere, and 
the two in cooperation are doing a work that can- 
not be overestimated. 


[ 62 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





V. THE DEVELOPING OF THE CHURCH IN ITS 
RELATION TO THE SCHOOL 


The term school is used, in the first instance, 
of the school in the community in which the 
church is situated, the grammar school, the high 
school, the academy; and, in the second in- 
stance, of the higher institutions of learning, the 
college, the university, the professional school. 

The social group, the church, has vital rela- 
tion to the social group, the school. The school, 
like the church and the family, is a unique social 
unit, a central social force. It would be diffi- 
cult, if not impossible, to name any other three 
social groups that are in so close alliance at so 
many points as are these three. The school can- 
not do its work without the family, for the chil- 
dren of the family form the constituency of the 
school. The family makes the school possible. 
The family is also linked with the church. 
Neither can dispense with the other. The 
church, then, becomes related to the school 
through the family, as will be shown later. The 
church stands too in a direct relation of its own 
to the school. The church extends a helping hand 
to both family and school, perhaps the right hand 
to the family, and the left hand to the school. 


[ 63 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


These three social institutions, the church, the 
family, the school, are the three angles of an 
equilateral triangle. 

The school does not need to be created, as do 
some social groups. It is near at hand, in the 
very heart of the community, its living force, its 
central hope. It is the focus-point and the dis- 
tributing center of some of the best influences 
for the welfare of the state, the largest social 
unit. It is composed of youth who are peculiarly 
susceptible to high ideals, individual and social. 
The school should, therefore, receive from the 
church its best ministry. 


Strands in the Cord that Binds the Church to 
the School 


1. The church owes its service to the school, 
growing out of the fact, already noted, that 
many, probably most, of the children of the school 
are the children of the church, at least in the 
sense that the church is responsible for their high- 
est welfare, even though some of them have no 
direct connection with the church through any 
of its agencies. This makes the relation of the 
church to the school of most vital moment, and 
greatly deepens the responsibility of the church 
concerning the school. It is possible for the 
school to undo what the church does. For the 


[ 64 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


preservation, then, of its influence upon the chil- 
dren of the school, and indirectly through them 
upon the family with which it is so peculiarly al- 
lied, the church has abundant reason for contrib- 
uting its legitimate and obligatory ministry to 
the school. 

2. The rich intellectual quality of Christianity, 
to which the church gives organization and vis- 
ible ministry, binds the church to the school by 
a band of steel. It is one of the commonplaces 
of the history of the Christian religion that wher- 
ever a meeting-house is built a schoolhouse is 
certain to spring up beside it. This is no mere 
chance. It is inevitable logic. For Christianity 
as an awakening mental force is the most pro- 
found and intense mankind has known. It is 
brimful of germinal, expanding ideas. It is a 
religion of thought; it provokes thought, it re- 
quires thought. It makes the school possible, es- 
sential. The first great schools were Christian 
schools, even church schools. The modern school 
of every grade, from the primary school to the 
university, owes its existence and its efficiency, di- 
rectly or indirectly, to the intellectual influence 
inherent in Christianity, and it is the church that 
gives organization to Christianity, and is the chief 
channel of its life and power. The school, in its 
turn, is essential to the church for its largest de- 


[65 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


‘velopment and its richest ministry. This is im- 
pressively and convincingly witnessed in the rise 
and the growth of the church in non-Christian 
lands. No sooner does the missionary gain con- 
verts than their intellectual thirst is aroused, and 
there is imperative call for the school, and the 
appearing of the school means the increase of the 
efficiency of the church in evangelism and in its 
own strongest upbuilding. Each is in need of the - 
other. 

3. The church is bound to the school, not by 
the intellectual tie alone or chiefly. There is a 
still more vital union between them. It is their 
ethical .alliance. The church makes, fundamen- 
tally, not for mental knowledge and discipline and 
power, but for character. So does the school. 
Its final and finest product is moral manhood and 
moral womanhood. That this is the true end of 
education, and that the public school is increas- 
ingly achieving it, is the testimony of the best 
educators. This common aim of character- 
building of both church and school draws these 
two social forces together in a living union, and 
gives to the church one of its most fruitful op- 
portunities. It intertwines their influence. Dr. 
S. W. Dike has said, “ Truth-telling, sincerity, 
kindness, tenderness, patience, courage, perse- 
verance, purity, moral discrimination, manliness,” 


[ 66 | 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


ethical qualities all, are the fruit of the best 
teaching in the public school. He says again, 
The development of clear-headed and true-hearted boys 
and girls, who love truth, and hate sham, who have the 
ability to distinguish things that differ, and the power and 
the disposition to respond to high motives, doing the right 
thing at the right moment, and in the right way, this is 
the aim of the schools of Massachusetts, wherever they 
are well conducted, from the kindergarten to the university. 


And the same can be said of all the well-con- 
ducted schools in all of the States. So is it 
of the church, its advantage being that it can en- 
force these high and fine things with even a 
stronger motive and with a divinely renewing 
power. Indeed, the tendency, now more marked 
than ever before, to make character the end and 
the test of true education, is a gift, more or less 
direct, of the church to the school, and of itself 
constitutes a strong tie between them. Both in- 
tellectually and ethically, then, the church is bound 
to the school, and is thus placed under gravest 
obligation, and has given to it the noblest oppor- 
tunity to promote its highest weal. ! 


What Constitutes the Scope of the Ministry of 
the Church to the School? 

1. The church in the prosecution of its agency 

to the school, acts largely through its pastor, the 

official representative of the church, and in some 


[ 67 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





sense clothed with its sanction and authority, and 
expressing its will. Besides, the pastor himself, 
by virtue of his education, his tastes, and his po- 
sition, is exceptionally fitted to cowork with the 
school for its largest efficiency. He and the 
teachers are natural allies. In a strict sense, the 
Christian minister stands closer to the public- 
school teacher than to any other public toiler in 
the community. They deal with the same ma- 
terial for the same high ends. He, therefore, 
for his own sake, and for the sake of the church 
and the school, should be intelligent concerning 
the school, its methods, the general character of 
its work, its ethical temper, its social aim. He 
should be acquainted with the teachers, cherish 
and express sympathy with them in their task, 
and suitably exchange views with them touching 
it. He should occasionally be found in the school, 
and, if opportunity offers, speak to the pupils. 
Thus he can become acquainted with the scope, 
the quality, the spirit of the teaching. He should 
interest the parents of his parish in the school, 
and promote cooperation between the family and 
the school. At appropriate times he should 
preach on the school. It has been suggested that 
he could do this most wisely and helpfully at 
“the opening or the close of the school year, 
the approach of Thanksgiving day, Christmas, 


[ 68 | 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





and on children’s Sunday.” Is it not too often 
true that in many, if not in most communities, 
the pastor is not acquainted with the teachers, 
and that they are doing their work apart? Is it 
not a social ministry that the pastor personally 
and representatively owes to the school to make 
himself a more intelligent and a stronger moral, 
not to say spiritual, force with the teachers and 
the pupils? 

2. The church could make itself deeply felt in 
furthering the weal of the school by occasional 
social entertainment of the teachers. ‘Thus the 
church as a church, that is, in its corporate life, 
would touch the school at its most vital point— 
its teachers. Such a meeting of the church force 
and the school force would be helpful in a va- 
riety of ways. It would tend strongly to pro- 
mote the mutual interest of church and school 
in drawing together these two social groups, as 
scarcely anything else could. It would afford 
excellent opportunity for the individual mem- 
bers of the church and congregation to become 
personally acquainted with the teachers of their 
children, thus enriching the social life of the 
teachers and deepening their interest in the chil- 
dren in the schoolroom. It would greatly cheer 
and encourage the teachers in the prosecution of 
their perplexing, monotonous, and wearisome 


[ 69] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


task to be assured that the church expresses its 
interest in, and its sympathy with, them. It 
would furnish the pastor an admirable opportu- 
nity of making and deepening his own acquain- 
tance with the teachers, by conversation and a 
brief address, of enlightening his people on the 
vital relation between church and school, and 
in awakening a sympathy between them which 
would, in every way, be thoroughly wholesome. 
Apart from, yet pervading like an atmosphere 
and a fragrance, all particular benefits, there 
would be engendered that good fellowship and 
fine feeling which go so far to enrich life and 
to sweeten and to exalt daily duty. In some. 
communities it might be wiser and better for 
churches to combine in offering social entertain- 
ment to the teachers of their children. 

3. There is a wider relation of the pastoral 
ministry to the school. It is the furtherance of 
lugher education. 

The churches must raise up an educated con- 
stituency, else their influence, their very existence, 
is doomed. Pastors and churches should be 
swift to discover the young people among their 
members who could gain an education in high 
school, academy, and college, and persuade them 
to avail themselves of it. Every church needs, 
for its largest efficiency, a good sprinkling of 


[ 70 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


well-educated persons among its members. They 
give tone, insight, and wide and wise outlook to 
the church. Further, the churches, under the 
leadership of their pastors, should interest them- 
selves in general education of the best sort. They 
should give financial aid to the higher institutions 
of learning, academies, colleges, universities, and 
professional schools for the training of ministers. 
It is, therefore, clearly the duty of the pastoral 
ministry to develop the churches in the educa- 
tional sphere. At suitable times the pastor should 
preach on the subject of education, and in the 
more familiar gatherings of the church, especially 
those of the young people, and in his personal 
contact with his parishioners in their homes and 
elsewhere, he should earnestly and wisely advo- 
cate the educational idea. He should also enlist 
the interest and cooperation of parents whose 
children could profit from a thorough mental 
training, and, if necessary, use his influence in 
providing financial aid for those who need it. 
By such endeavors an increasing number of young 
people would make their way to higher institu- 
tions of learning, and in the end organized Chris- 
tianity would be greatly strengthened. 

4. There is yet another branch of education to 
which the churches, under a wise pastoral leader- 
ship, should give special attention, viz., religious 


bas 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


education. The expression is here used in a two- 
fold sense: First, the general education of the en- 
tire congregation in the characteristic truths of 
the Christian religion, which is to be done chiefly 
through the agency of the pastor in his preach- 
ing, in his conduct of the midweek meeting, and 
in his pastoral contact with his people; secondly, 
the technical, scientific meaning, viz., the appli- 
cation of modern psychology and modern peda- 
gogy in the teaching in the church school, and in 
young people’s societies, for the purpose of se- 
curing their loving fealty to Christ as Saviour 
and Lord, and their growth in Christian charac- 
ter and service. The pastor can be largely in- 
fluential in this field. If his church is small, 
he could engage directly in the work. If his 
church is large, a director of religious education 
could be employed, who would have charge of 
this department. In either case, the pastor should 
be trained in this sphere, so as to be adequately 
competent in it. It is a branch of instruction 
that should have prominence in every theological 
school. Without it the school is not equipped to 
meet the demands of our time. 

The religious education movement, in its wid- 
est extent, is interesting and suggestive. The 
conviction is deepening among those especially 
concerned with the Christian training of youth 


[72] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


that the half-hour given to the study of the Bible 
in the church once a week is entirely inadequate. 
It is consequently felt that the teaching of the 
Bible should be introduced in connection with 
the public school—the school yielding a period of 
time each week to the church for the instruction 
of the pupils in Christian things. The tendency 
is toward allowing credit for this work in the 
curriculum of the public school. The plan is be- 
ing tried out in some places, and seemingly with 
good results. It is thought by those most com- 
petent to judge in this matter that the individual 
churches, or the churches in a combined effort, 
should erect buildings suitable for imparting 
Christian instruction to the scholars in the pub- 
lic schools. This movement is in its initial and 
tentative stage, and it should receive the best 
thought and the wisest judgment of pastors and 
churches. 


VI. DEVELOPING THE CHURCH IN [Ts DISTINC- 
TIVELY SOCIAL MINISTRY 


Outstanding Forms of This Ministry 

I. One is the guarding and the promoting of 
the moral welfare of the community. Until the 
abolishing of the liquor saloon, this work in- 
cluded the safeguarding of school children by re- 


[73 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


stricting the location of the saloon in the vicinity 
of the schoolhouse, and in overseeing the con- 
duct of the saloon, that it should be orderly, and 
that liquor should not be sold to minors. Now 
that prohibition has banished the saloon, the 
church is relieved of its responsibility in this 
sphere. Its task is at present concerned particu- 
larly with safeguarding the recreation and the 
entertainment of the young, and the social and 
political morality of the community. This is a 
function that certainly belongs to the Christian 
church. As to the sort of organization for ac- 
complishing it, there might be difference of opin- 
ion among church-members. It would seem to 
be wise that the church itself as a whole should 
not directly act in the matter, but that a men’s 
organization within the church, the men’s Bible 
class, or the men’s Brotherhood, should be re- 
sponsible for and should perform this valuable 
task. This has been the method of procedure on 
the part of some of the larger and more influen- 
tial churches under the leadership of strong and 
wise pastors, and it has seemed to work well. 
Every Christian church, or the churches by a 
combined effort, should function in promoting 
the moral welfare of the community in which 
they are placed and in which they have their im- 
mediate ministry. 


L744 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





2. The other aspect of the social ministry of 
the church is in its relation to commerce and to 
industry. There are those who maintain that 
the church has nothing to do with social ques- 
tions, that its work is specifically and exclusively 
individualistic, and that, if individuals are right- 
eous, society must become so. ‘There are others 
at the opposite extreme, who think that the main, 
if not the sole, business of the church is social, 
that Christianity, or the kingdom of God, is in 
the world to establish a social reign, and that 
when society is righteous individuals will become 
so. In other words, that the Christian religion 
works from the mass to the individual, and not 
vice versa. There is a middle ground that is 
probably more in harmony with the genius of 
Christianity, viz., that it seeks the highest wel- 
fare of both the individual and society. It is 
clear that the church has no mission in marking 
out a specific and detailed economic or industrial 
program. It is not fitted for this. Its members 
do not possess the adequate training and knowl- 
edge to pass technical judgment as to the exact 
scale of wages that would be just, or as to the 
details of the management of a commercial or 
industrial enterprise. These belong to the ex- 
perts. In so far, however, as the matters con- 
cerned are ethical, and certainly they almost al- 


[ 75 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





ways are deeply so, the church has a place and a 
duty. So far as commercial business is con- 
cerned the church should emphasize the fact that 
its ultimate aim is not mere money-getting, but 
social service, the bettering of the community, 
the promoting of human welfare. It is encourag- 
ing to note that this conviction is deepening in 
the commercial world arid that increasing num- 
bers of leading merchants and manufacturers are 
endeavoring to carry on their business on this 
ethical principle. 

The mission of the church concerning indus- 
try is the same as that concerning commerce— 
teaching the idea of service—that industrial re- 
lations and activities should be such as not to 
endanger, but to promote the comfort, the happi- 
ness, and the prosperity of all the people, who 
make industry possible. What, then, can the 
church legitimately contribute to the industrial 
situation? It can and ought to contribute the 
principle of the Golden Rule, which is so vital 
a part of Christianity, and which is entrusted to 
the church for its propagation. If a spirit of 
good-will, instead of a spirit of selfishness and 
bitterness and strife, is introduced into the rela- 
tions between employer and employed, they read- 
ily come to see that their interests are mutual - 
and not antagonistic, and any differences that 


[ 76 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


arise between them are easily compounded. 
Carroll D. Wright, the eminent expert in the field 
of industry, when he was United States Commis- 
sioner of Labor, used to say that the Golden 
Rule is more potent in settling industrial difficul- 
ties than all the industrial legislation that has 
been enacted. Lloyd George is reported to have 
recently said that 


The function of the church is not to urge or advocate any 
specific measure in regard to social reform. Her duty is 
to create an atmosphere. 


And the Golden Rule creates the finest atmos- 
phere among men in all their relations. 

The church can and should advocate justice in 
all industrial matters. The Christian religion, 
which is entrusted to the church for its adminis- 
tration, is preeminently a religion of righteous- 
ness. The Old Testament legislation, the Ten 
Commandments, the teaching of the prophets 
and of Jesus are ali emphatically in the sphere 
of social righteousness. The church is, there- 
fore, under obligation to use its influence in fur- 
thering justice in the sphere of industry. And 
when justice is established, rights and duties are 
equally balanced. No man who wants to be 
fair with others can insist upon his rights be- 
yond his willingness and his purpose to discharge 


[77] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





his duties. Moral obligation includes both, and 
insists upon both. 

As to the method of the church in furthering 
a spirit of good-will and of justice in commer- 
cial and industrial relations aside from the teach- 
ing of the pulpit, which is the teaching of the 
church through its representative, and the gen- 
eral influence of the church in its individual mem- 
bers and corporate life, its specific agency, as in 
the moral betterment of the community, is most 
wisely and influentially crystallized and exercised 
in the men’s organizations within the church. 
The Council of the Federated Churches is a val- 
uable medium for the expression of the mind 
and purpose of the churches in this sphere and in 
others, and it is making its influence felt in al 
strong and wholesome way. 


VII. DEVELOPING THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT AND 
MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR 


The crowning sphere in the developing of the 
church into a strong and efficient body is the de- 
veloping of the missionary spirit and of en- 
deavor for the world-wide spread of the king- 
dom of God. No pastor, sensitive to the mind of 
Christ, can justifiably excuse himself from the 
supreme task. 


[ 78 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 





A church that is not missionary is not a true 
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It lacks his 
spirit, is opposed to his purpose, and is disobey- 
ing his command. It is in the world as an or- 
ganized force to secure the reign of God among 
all peoples on the face of the earth. Not until 
all the continents and all the isles of all the seas 
are filled with the knowledge of the one true 
God, and are doing his will, can the church cease 
to be missionary in ideal, in purpose, and in prac- 
tise. The preaching of the minister; the teach- 
ing in the Sunday school; missionary study by 
various groups; the consecration of money 
through systematic and proportionate giving; 
securing recruits for missionary service; main- 
taining a good missionary library ; adequate mis- 
sionary organization; prayer for the universal 
coming of the kingdom, are among the chief 
agencies for nourishing a missionary spirit, and 
for sending the gospel to the ends of the earth. 

The church should, therefore, be intelligent 
concerning the missionary character of the Chris- 
tian religion, and so of the Bible, present-day 
missionary achievements in evangelism, in edu- 
cation, and in social progress among the non- 
Christian nations, the chief foreign missionary 
societies, and in missionary biography. This 
last is one of the most valuable means of devel- 


[79 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





oping a missionary spirit and activity in a 
church. It includes the lives, the methods, and 
the successes of missionaries. Now that historic 
Christianity is so rich in great men and women, 
and in noble characters that have won triumphs 
so many and so signal on different missionary 
fields, the Sunday school, the various groups for 
missionary study, and the pulpit should avail 
themselves of materials from this fertile source. 
The pastor who acquaints his people with these 
men and women and their achievements, fur- 
nishes not only valuable information touching the 
growth of God’s kingdom in the earth, but ex- 
alted ideals of Christian manhood and Christian 
womanhood, and splendid inspirations for Chris- 
tian service. This aspect of missionary preach- 
ing could be used often to best purpose as 
illustrative material in preaching not distinctively 
missionary. To indicate the wealth of missionary 
biography it is necessary to name only a few of 
the outstanding missionaries of the Cross, in- 
cluding none of the living: Judson, Carey, Duff, 
Pattison, Saker, Martyn, Moffatt, Mackay, Liv- 
ingstone, Paton, Hamlin, Griffith John, Crowther: 
Mackenzie, Hannington. 

The minister who develops a church into a 
strong and efficient force, in building Christian 
character, in producing an enthusiastic corporate 


[ 80 ] 


THE MINISTER AS LEADER 


life, in securing Christian action in prayer and 
personal evangelism, in setting forth the relation 
between the church and the family and the church 
and the school, in furthering the moral better- 
ment of the community, in presenting a social 
ministry in the spheres of commerce and industry, 
in nourishing the missionary spirit and promoting 
missionary endeavor, is doing the best work that 
a man can do for his fellow human beings, and 
he erects for himself a monument nobler and 
more enduring than a shaft of bronze. 





III 


THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 





THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


HAvinG considered the twofold function of the 
pastoral ministry—preaching and leadership— 
it is pertinent to inquire, What sort of man is 
requisite for this double task? What constitutes 
the chief equipment of the pastoral ministry? 


I. PERSONAL CHARACTER 


It is taken for granted that a minister is a 
good man, and that he is conscientiously and 
heartily devoted to his calling; that it is true of 
him as Bengel says, Bonum negotium. bonis com- 
mittendum, “ A good work must be committed 
to good men”’; that in character and reputation 
he fulfills Paul’s injunctions: “Take heed to 
iiveelt eet him! 447 16)" Hxercise thyselt 
unto godliness” (1 Tim. 4: 7), gumnaze, a 
strong word denoting earnest, vigorous striving; 
* Become an example of the believers in word, ° 
in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 
4: 12); “He must have good testimony from 
them that are without” (1 Tim. 3:7). The 
true pastor is vitally related to God, as well as 
to men. He knows what it is to seek the divine 


[85 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


solitude, to abide in the presence of the Almighty, 
to have communion with God. It is said: 

The river that is to bring freshness to many a league of 
plain must have its rise in the solitary cleft of the lonely 
hills, and draw its waters from the snows that sparkle on 
their tops; and the minister to be of power must live 
alone with God. 


He has power of intercession with God. He 
knows that all true success in the ministry is, in 
the last analysis, the gift of God. He must have 
influence with God, and God must have influence 
with him, before he can have influence with men. 
He bestows upon them what God has bestowed 
upon him, no more, no less. “ Prayer is the most 
inward, and the most essential duty of the min- 
istry.” Thus the minister’s character, humanly 
and divinely approved and divinely enforced, is 
his chief asset. George Adam Smith has beauti- 
fully and aptly said: * 

A prophet is not a voice only. A prophet is a life behind 
a voice. He who would speak for God must have lived 
for God. Speech is not the expression of a few thoughts 
of a man, but the utterance of his whole life. A man 
blossoms through his lips; and no man is a prophet whose 


word is not the virtue and the flower of a gracious and 
a consecrated life. 


How deeply true it forever is, that a golden voice 
without a golden man behind it and in it is worse 


1“ Tsaiah,”’ Vol. 2, p. 326. 


[ 86 ] 


THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


than valueless! Leaden instincts can never be 
transmuted into golden character, or have golden 
utterance. The ultimate success of a minister 
hinges, first of all, upon the people’s confidence 
in, and respect for, his Christian integrity. They 
must believe him to be a. genuine man of God 
before they receive him as their minister in the 
things of God. Their slightest suspicion that he 
is unsound in Christian character will vitiate for 
them his whole ministry. No amount of doc- 
trinal soundness in him can compensate for a 
lack of ethical soundness. If the head is not en- 
forced from the heart, the conscience, and the 
will, his orthodoxy becomes worse than hetero- 
doxy, it becomes hypocrisy. 

Why was it that the influence of such men as 
Adoniram J. Gordon, Richard S. Storrs, and 
Theodore L. Cuyler was so exceptionally potent 
with their churches and congregations? It was 
not due wholly or chiefly to the superior quality 
of their preaching, high as it was. Their pulpits 
could have been occupied by men whose preach- 
ing would have been satisfactory. But their 
places among their people would have been va- 
cant, because through the long terms of their pas- 
toral service, their people came to know and to 
feel them as regal Christian men who splendidly 
commended the gospel in themselves. 


[ 87 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





II. Love or THE CHURCH 


It is also taken for granted that a pastor has 
the love of his church. A minister’s success 
hinges most of all upon his people’s love for 
him. They must go further than to have con- 
fidence in, and respect for, him, based upon his 
Christian character, essential and invaluable as 
that is. They must love him. He must win their 
loyalty and cooperation deeper than the con- 
science and the judgment. He must have their 
hearts, else his influence among them as a ser- 
vant of Christ is seriously and irreparably crip- 
pled. As Doctor Stalker has said, “ To love and 
to be loved is the secret of a happy and successful 
ministry.”’ It is essential to bear in mind the true 
quality of that love. It is superior to merely nat- 
ural affection. It is not a love that is evoked by 
simply lovable qualities. A rogue may, and 
sometimes does, possess a natural winsomeness 
that appeals to the heart. John Masefield has 
truthfully said, “‘ The charm that so often goes 
with worthlessness, has a power of attracting 
that is sometimes refused to the noble.” It is 
superior to merely ethical love, that an ethical 
teacher could draw from his disciples. It is a 
love uniquely Christian, such as the apostle 
crowns in the thirteenth chapter of First Co- 


[88 ] 


THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 





rinthians. This love of a church for its minister 
has its ground in the distinctively spiritual affec- 
tions of the human soul which are fruit of the 
Holy Spirit. Wauthout these it could not be. The 
people must love him in the Lord. It has its 
ground, too, in the nature of his work. He is 
among them as the ambassador of their common 
Saviour and Lord. As such he ministers to them 
a spiritual faith that becomes intertwined with 
their most tender and sacred experiences, that 
has its home in their holiest feelings, in their deep- 
est affections. 


III. SpeciFic QUALITIES 


There is a cluster of specific qualities requisite 
to success in preaching and in leadership. For 
a man may be a good man and have the love of 
his church, and yet be a poor pastor. Professor 
Phelps cites an amusing and suggestive instance 
of this: ” 

An intelligent lady writes me as follows of her young 
pastor who has just been dismissed: 


“He was a kind of machine. Clay went in on one side, 
and bricks ready-made came out on the other. Every 
Sunday he brought us a fresh brick. It was impossible 
not to love him for his finely disciplined mind, and his 
handsome face, and his tender, spiritual tone; but his ser- 


2“ Theory of Preaching,” p. 414. 


[ 89 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


mons were—dreadful! Oh! I thought if he would but 
have a brick one-sided, or too big, or too little, or slack- 
baked, or burnt, or imprinted with his own fingers, what 
a joy it would be! There was a relief when the next 
minister came, and gave us chips and sawdust.” 


Knowledge of Christianity and Belief in its 
Power 


The pastor must have a correct conception of 
the Christian religion, and an unshaken conh- 
dence in its power to produce victorious right- 
eousness, personal and social. He is to possess 
a clear, working knowledge of the chief ideas, the 
outstanding truths of Christianity—the truths 
that center in God, in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, 
and in.man, which constitute the spiritual forces 
that renew human nature into Godlikeness, and 
also of the way in which these forces operate 
upon personality, or, as it is now termed, the 
psychology of religion. And he must have a pro- 
found conviction that there is no human wicked- 
ness that is beyond the reach and the power of 
the gospel. To be hesitant here is to put the 
sword in the hand of the enemy. He must be- 
lieve with Paul that “ we are more than conquer- 
ors through him that loved us.’ This is the belt 
of his armor. It has been central in every suc- 
cessful ministry throughout generations of pulpit 
workers from Paul’s day to our own. 


[ 90] 


THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 





Belief in the Worth of Human Personality 


{ The minister is to have a keen, vivid sense of 
the value of human personality. Every success- 
ful workman in any sphere of human endeavor 
rightly estimates the material in which he works 
as well as the instrument with which he works. 
Next to his redemptive efficacy, perhaps the great- 
est contribution that Jesus made to human wel- 
fare was his insight into the worth of man. ) In 
every Simon he discovered a possible Peter. 
While he saw clearly the depth of human sinful- 
ness, which he never underestimated or excused, 
he clearly saw also that deeper deep of man’s 
immortal value. The prodigal son could and did 
come to himself. He could and did make up his 
mind to return to his father, and his action im- 
mediately followed upon his resolve. There was 
that in him which prodigality could not waste. 
The Christian minister works among diamonds, 
and all sorts of precious stones. Man has the 
power to know and to think, the power to feel, 
to enjoy, and to suffer, the power to appreciate 
the beautiful, which sin has never rubbed out of 
human nature, the power to discriminate between 
right and wrong, righteousness and sinfulness, 
with the impulse to cleave to the one, and to ab- 
hor and desert the other, the power to will, to 


[91] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





execute, and so to build character, for character 
is crystallized will. And behind all these powers 
man has an immortal personality in which they 
are all set, and from which they receive their 
chief value, as precious stones are set in gold. 
With a deep and accurate insight into human na- 
ture, and into the Christian faith, of which he is 
a divinely appointed ambassador, the pastor is 
indeed “a workman that need not be ashamed, 
rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 


Quire )s 
Knowledge of the Times 


The Christian minister must know the time 
in which he is living and working. He is to know 
its thinking, its interests, its activities, its point 
of view, its temper—that subtle something im- 
possible to define, but profoundly felt, which 
makes an age what it is. While in the deepest 
meaning all times are alike, since truth and hu- 
man nature are fundamentally the same the world 
over and the centuries through, it yet remains 
significantly true that one time differs from 
another time, from all other times. There is 
such a thing as the time-spirit. The minister 
becomes acquainted with his time by studying it, 
by living in it, by becoming a part of it, by giv- 
ing his heart to it. He is to esteem it as, on the 


[92] 


THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


whole, the best time God has given to his world 
—a time that offers a supreme opportunity. This 
is essential to his having a message. For the 
Christian minister who is out of sympathy with 
his own generation, and who bemoans the pass- 
ing of the former days and the coming of the 
new days, has no heart to receive or to deliver 
a message. The Christian minister will certainly 
find that the forces which essentially constitute 
the present time are varied, complex, tangled. 
There are so many currents and undercurrents 
and cross-currents in it that often he may feel 
baffled and in despair in any attempt to get a 
deep, true insight into it. Our age is in many 
ways paradoxical. It is at one and the same 
time scientific and philosophic, materialistic and 
spiritual, psychological, social, industrial, com- 
mercial. This makes the minister’s task unspeak- 
ably difficult, and yet it challenges him to a golden 
opportunity for the widest and deepest influence. 
If he is truly taught of God, he is equal to the 
difficult situation, and will successfully further 
the kingdom of divine truth, divine righteousness, 
divine love. 


Forceful Personality 


The Christian minister, if he would achieve suc- 
cess in our time, must have a reasonably force- 


[93 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


ful personality—that indefinable quality which 
gives him influence over others, which induces 
them to look at things from his point of view, 
and to do what he wants them to do. Without 
this subtle and mysterious ability he may be a 
thoroughly good man, but he is inefficient as a 
communicator of truth and as a leader of men. 
It has been extravagantly said that “in preaching 
the thing of least consequence is the sermon.” 
It cannot be truthfully said that the thing of 
least consequence in preaching is the preacher 
himself. It remains perpetually true that preach- 
ing is “truth through personality.” And there 
must be a reasonable amount of personality to 
enable the truth to get through and to make itself 
felt. The divine call to the minister never stops 
with the mind, or the heart, or the conscience, 
or the will, or all together, it always penetrates 
into the inner self, into the very core of a man’s 
being. 


The Heart of a Peacemaker 


A pactic disposition is a vital element in the 
equipment of a successful minister—that dispo- 
sition which fulfils the apostle’s exhortation, 
“Let us follow after the things which make for 
peace” (Rom. 14: 19). It is the opposite of 
an irritable, domineering, bellicose spirit. In 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


the Scripture portrait of an efficient pastor this 
feature is prominent. Paul, in defining to Timo- 
thy an overseer’s equipment, says he “ must be 
gentle, not contentious”’ (1 Tim. 3: 3); “‘ The 
Lord’s servant must not strive, but be gentle to- 
wardiall’7(2: dum.92 3/24); Not: selfi-willed:”’ 
is the way he puts it in sending to Titus the list 
of pastoral qualifications. (Titus 1: 7.) Peter’s 
appeal to the presbyters reads, “ Neither lording 
it over the charge allotted to you” (1 Peter 
eee 

Why is this irenic quality essential to a pastor? 
A twofold answer may be given. In the first 
place, the temper of self-will and self-assertion, 
natively strong in human nature, is peculiarly 
liable to manifestation in a position of authority 
and leadership such as a pastor holds. The exer- 
cise of power over others is sweet and gratifying. 
It appeals mightily to self-importance. It re- 
quires a great deal of divine grace for the pastor 
successfully to resist this temptation, and to keep 
himself in that frame of humility which will en- 
able him candidly to say in the spirit of the apos- 
tle, “ Myself your bond-servant for Jesus’ sake ”’ 
(2.Coriaess,): 

The irenic temper is essential, in the second 
place, because there is much in the work of a 
pastor sorely to try his patience. He not infre- 


[95] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


quently has to do with cross-grained people. He 
has occasion often to pray, “ From unreasonable 
men, good Lord, deliver me’ (2 Thess. 3: 2). 
There are enough of them in the churches. Petty 
annoyances of various kinds are constantly pre- 
senting themselves. He has to deal with ignorant 
and narrow-minded persons, with persons of a 
variety of tastes and dispositions. There is all 
about him a plenty of tinder ready to be kindled 
into a blaze by some stray spark struck out from 
his inflamed temper. If the secret histories of 
the unsettling of pastors could be read, in all 
probability it would be found that, in numerous, 
if not in a majority of cases, the mischief was 
done by a hasty word or act by the pastor in a 
moment of heat to which he was provoked by 
some annoying circumstance, and for which he 
was heartily sorry when his temper was cooled, 
and it was too late to make amends. 


A Sympathetic Spirit 


Sympathy is a central quality in a successful 
pastoral ministry—which means fellow feeling 
with others in their varied conditions of joy and 
grief, prosperity and adversity, of hope and dis- 
couragement, of strength and weakness, and a 
corresponding ability of manifesting it. Sympa- 
thy is something other and more than speaking 


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encouraging and comforting words to aged peo- 
ple in weakness and sorrow. It is a thoroughly 
virile quality in a minister. It connotes fellow 
feeling, putting oneself in the place of others, 
and keenly appreciating their situation. A cold- 
blooded, undemonstrative man has no call to, as 
he has no place in, a present-day pastoral minis- 
try. He may have large ability, and may be 
very useful in some occupations in life, but he is 
disqualified to interpret to his fellow men the 
precious truth and power of the Christian gospel. 
Human sympathy was the open secret of the deep 
and wide-reaching influence of the ministry of 
Phillips Brooks. When he passed into the un- 
seen, Boston seemed lonely because a great heart 
had ceased to beat. 

Sympathy is necessary in the Christian pas- 
torate because of, first, the genius of the gospel, 
which has to do so largely with the hearts of the 
people, and so, secondly, the character of the pas- 
toral tie. It is a heart-tie. 

Thirdly, the prevalence of sorrow and affliction 
to which, as a pastor, he is called to minister the 
consolations of the gospel. Every true pastor 
is a paraclete in the function of encouraging and 
strengthening by consolation, and the longer he 
remains in a community the exercise of this func- 
tion of his ministry greatly increases. He is sur- 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





rounded by trouble of every sort, and people look 
to him as they look to no other for comfort. This 
phase of his work makes expensive draughts upon 
his vitality, physical, mental, and spiritual, but it 
is a price to be paid in the prosecution of his di- 
vine calling. It takes the very life out of him, but 
for this he has given his life. A ministry of 
sympathy he cannot escape, and should not wish 
to escape, and he must have a sympathy to min- 
ister and a sympathy in ministering. 

Fourthly, the work of leading the penitent to 
Christ. Doctor Bushnell used to say that this 
feature of a pastor’s work is vicarious in its na- 
ture. That is, the pastor has to put himself so 
completely in the place of the inquirer as to take 
the steps he has to take, to experience what he 
experiences in receiving the forgiveness of his 
sins and in being welcomed into the divine recon- 
ciliation. This calls for sympathy, a fellow feel- 
ing, delicate and intense. A cold-natured man 
cannot render so sensitive a service. Jesus and 
Paul are noble examples for the pastor in this 
ministry of sympathy. They felt for the people 
with whom they had to do, had a deep and ten- 
der compassion for them in the whole range of 
their varied experiences. It has been said that 


a warm heart is more attractive than a large brain. Men 
are influenced through their emotions more easily, and 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


oftener, than by their logical faculty. A strong character 
has added power when it shows a loving spirit. 


The Shepherd Impulse 


Closely associated with sympathy in the Chris- 
tian ministry, indeed, a manifestation of it, is 
what may be termed the shepherd impulse—a deep 
yearning to bring men into the Christian flock, 
that feeling which absorbed Jesus, as it is de- 
clared of him, “‘ When he saw the multitudes, he 
was moved with compassion for them, because 
they were distressed and scattered, not having 
a shepherd,” or, as Moffatt translates it, “ har- 
assed and dejected.” It is significant that 
_ Matthew, who records the incident, immediately 
adds: “ Then he said to his disciples, The har- 
vest is great, but the laborers are few. Pray 
therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send 
forth laborers into his harvest.” And suiting the 
action to the word, he sent forth the twelve into 
their campaign as recorded in the tenth chapter. 
It is that impulse which is so beautifully and 
persuasively described in the tenth chapter of 
John’s Gospel—“ I am the good shepherd. I lay 
down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, 
too, which do not belong to this fold. I must 
bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, 
so it will be one flock, one shepherd ”’—and 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


which comes to so blessed fruition in the fifteenth 
chapter of Luke’s Gospel, the great evangelistic 
chapter, in the parable of the lost sheep-—* Re- 
joice with me because I found my sheep which 
was lost’’; whereupon the heavenly world re- 
sounds with joy—and in the parable of the Lost 
Son: “‘ When he was still far away his father 
saw him and felt pity for him, and ran to fall 
upon his neck and kiss him . . . So they began 
to make merry. For this my son was dead, and 
is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” If 
ever men of all conditions needed shepherding, 
it is now—the rich, the poor, the high, the low, 
the learned, the ignorant, who are without God 
and without hope in the world; when men are lost 
in the materialistic ends of life, and in the mad 
pursuit of wealth and pleasure, when class is 
bitterly arrayed against class, when nation is 
against nation in bitterness and strife, until civ- 
ilization itself is seriously threatened with total 
collapse. The minister who does not yearn over 
men, and try to reach them with the gospel that 
is entrusted to him, is singularly unfitted for the 
task to which he is divinely called. 


An Attitude of Hope 


An expectant temper is a prominent essential 
in a successful ministry. If there is any pecu- 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


liarly pronounced note ringing through the New 
Testament it is the note of hope, of victory. 
Jesus said to Nathanael, “ Thou shalt see greater 
things than these”? (John 1: 50). That is, there 
is always something better ahead in Christianity. 
When Jesus was only a few hours away from 
the Cross, he was deeply convinced that his in- 
fluence was to continue among men and gloriously 
triumph. “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
will draw all men unto myself ”’ (John 12 : 32). 
And he heartened his disciples by declaring unto 
them: “ Be of good courage; I have overcome 
the world” (John 16: 33). What could ever 
daunt the expectation of Paul? In spite of his 
sufferings, so numerous, so varied, and so severe, 
his outlook for the truth, of which he was the 
minister, was always optimistic, triumphant. In 
writing to the church in Rome, while making full 
acknowledgment of the suffering of the sons of 
God, the disciples of Christ, and never trying to 
minimize them—‘ For thy sake we are killed all 
the day long; we were accounted as sheep for 
slaughter ’’—he exultingly inquired : ‘‘ What then 
shall we say to these things? If God is for us, 
who is against us?”’ (Rom. 8: 31). There is 
nothing more certain in this world than that what 
a man is looking for and striving for in the king- 
dom of God he will reach. An expectant temper 


[ 101 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


in the minister of the gospel is one of his richest 
assets, and challenges success. Without it he is 
disarmed for his high task. 


Enterprise 


Closely allied with the expectant temper in 
the Christian minister is the spirit of enterprise, 
which means “eagerness to engage in labor 
which requires boldness, promptness, energy.” 
The man who is wide-awake, aggressive, in a 
word, a man of initiative, who is not content 
merely to keep things as they are, but who longs 
for new fields to conquer, and is ever planning 
and striving to advance the interests of the king- 
dom that have been entrusted to his care—such 
a man is a host in himself, and is sure to see the 
fruition of his labors. For the blessing of God 
is pledged to such as he. 


A Discreet Mind 


Discretion is a chief factor in the equipment 
of a successful pastor, by which is meant that 
broad, practical wisdom which leads to right 
speech and right action at the right time and in 
the right way. Tact in dealing with men is one 
form of manifestation of a discreet mind, and 
tact is defined by Webster as “ready power of 
appreciating and doing what is required by cir- 


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cumstances.” Discretion stands next to holiness 
as a pastoral qualification. The secretary of a 
ministerial education society speaking to an emi- 
nent and successful preacher concerning the quali- 
ties of young men with the ministry in view, 
named them in this order: (1) piety, (2) talents, 
(3) scholarship, (4) discretion. “Change the 
order,’ responded the preacher, “put discretion 
next to piety.” A wise answer, for that is where 
discretion belongs. All men who achieve the 
greatest success in life in whatever sphere of en- 
deavor are eminent for this sort of homely wis- 
dom. Two of the leading American college presi- 
dents, Francis Wayland, of Brown University, 
-and Martin B. Anderson, of the University of 
Rochester, chiefly owed their remarkable success, 
not to the possession in exceptional degree of 
technical scholarship, but to that fine balance and 
poise of powers which are termed judgment, dis- 
cretion, sagacity, wisdom. This was the out- 
standing equipment of Booker T. Washington 
in his remarkable success in building up the Tus- 
kegee Institute. Men who hold long pastorates 
are usually men noted for their practical sagacity. 
They are excellent advisers with their own people 
and with others. They see as by intuition the 
thing to be said or done, or to be unsaid or un- 
done. “ Discretion of speech is more than elo- 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


quence,’ says Bacon. This qualification of a 
Christian minister is especially needed now when 
the pastoral idea in the widest sense of overseer- 
ship of the varied interests of a church is so 
prominent and so necessary. The pastor deals 
with shrewd men, some of whom are at the head 
of large mercantile interests. He needs to use 
these men for the ends of the gospel. This calls 
for sagacity on his part. The quality of discre- 
tion is more strictly a native endowment than 
are some of the other qualifications for pastoral 
success. But it is reasonable to expect that it 
may develop as the minister gains experience in 
pastoral overseership. 


The Soul of a Gentleman 


Personal agreeableness is a prime element in 
the success of a modern minister—that quality 
which makes people like a man, draws them to 
him, and makes them wish to be with him; the 
opposite of a blunt, coarse, repellent manner. 
James Russell Lowell has said of Dean Stanley, 
who was a most excellent judge of human nature, 
‘“‘T think no man ever lived who was so pleas- 
ant to so many people.’’ How invaluable a trait 
this must have been to him as Dean of West- 
minster Abbey, where he had to do with all sorts 
of people from all lands. Dr. Theodore Cuyler, 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 





himself a fine example of this precept, says, 
“Scores of ministers do not seem to remember 
that they can do but very little good to people 
who do not like them.” His parishioners used 
to remark of Constans L. Goodell, one of the 
most successful pastors this country ever had, 
the model pastor of his generation, that he was 
one of the pleasantest of men, and that his re- 
markable success was due, in no small measure, 
to this fact. Spurgeon’s brother said of him, 
“A great deal of my brother’s success was due 
to his geniality.” A pastor may be agreeable, 
winsome, to all classes of people with no ap- 
proach to sycophancy, and with no compromise 
of the dignity of his Christian manliness. There 
is no telling how much pastoral success in this 
modern time depends upon this manner in a min- 
ister. He is thrown, or ought to be thrown, with 
all kinds of people. He meets them casually on 
the street. If he has a cordial, hearty way with 
him, if he knows how to speak with people, and 
how to shake hands with them, a walk down the 
main street of the place in which he lives and 
labors may do wonders for him as a servant of 
God. 

There is now a strong demand for Christian 
gentlemen in the pastorate of American churches. 
The men who have pleasant, cultivated manners 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





in public and in private, in the pulpit, in the 
prayer-meeting, in the homes of the families of 
their parishes, in social gatherings, in the store, 
in the office, in the workshop, on the street, any- 
where, everywhere, have set before them an open 
door of wide usefulness. It would be difficult 
to name a quality, short of one of a vital ethical 
sort, which more widely commends a minister of 
the gospel in this time. If a pastor finds that by 
nature his manner is abrupt, frigid, repelling, he 
is under most sacred obligation, on the score of 
his usefulness, to strive to overcome it and assid- 
uously to cultivate its opposite. Jesus must have 
had this trait of personal amenity. There must 
have been something very winsome about him, 
for he seems to have been very easy of access. 
All classes and conditions of his countrymen, 
even the children, sought his society and felt 
at home with him. As Dean Howson remarks, 
“We do not read that Paul was as winning to 
young persons as Jesus was.” Who can tell how 
much that gracious manner of his furthered his 
influence in drawing to himself, and in retaining, 
the inner circle of his disciples, in reaching the 
multitudes, in healing the sick, in counseling and 
encouraging the afflicted. Every true minister 
of Christ will strive to imitate his Master in this 
respect. 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


A Persistent Spirit 


Persistence must be vitally linked with agree- 
ableness for the greatest success in the pastoral 
ministry—that steady, patient, determined hold- 
ing on in Christian work. In some sense it is the 
crowning pastoral quality, since volitional energy 
is involved in it, and is essential to it, and the 
will is the regal endowment of human person- 
ality. A man may be a pleasant man and a weak 
man. Personal agreeableness is but the entering 
of the wedge of pastoral usefulness; persistence 
drives it home. It is generally agreed among 
‘men of business that the two outstanding essen- 
tials to exceptional success are good judgment 
and persistence. They equally underlie success 
in a modern pastorate. The pastor who has the 
grit to keep right on in his work in spite of, in- 
deed, because of, adverse and discouraging cir- 
cumstances, is bound to win in the end. He 
does not lose heart, the losing of which is the 
losing of all in the pastorate. Obstacles must 
give way at last before such as he. The people 
feel the steady pressure of his will force, and 
either yield to it, or get out of its way. Such a 
man is a source of power. He is a host in 
himself. His ministry is inevitably and continu- 
ously fruitful. 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





What is likely sooner or later to be the situa- 
tion, even in the best churches, that requires the 
exercise of pastoral persistence? 

First, scarcely ever does the church as a whole 
support a pastor in his work as it ought. He 
must frequently make his way through sheer 1in- 
difference, if not through positive opposition, on 
the part of some, at least, if he pushes his labors 
as widely and as thoroughly as he thinks they 
ought to be pushed. If he is earnest and aggres- 
sive in his methods, as he ought to be, as a “ good 
steward of the manifold grace of God,” there 
will probably be some, possibly a good many, who 
do not wish to have their ease disturbed. He 
must do his work, at first at least, without their 
cooperation, and he must not be discouraged by 
it. He must have in himself resource of cour- 
age and of will, else he will likely be beaten back 
from his purpose to “make full proof of his 
ministry.” 

Secondly, there come seasons of unusual spir- 
itual declension in churches, and it is difficult to 
discern why or how they come. The hearts of 
all, or nearly all, seem cold, dead. So far as 
the pastor can see there are no fruits of his min- 
istry, either among the members of the church 
or the impenitent. Indeed, there come times 
when the pastor’s own heart is strangely para- 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


lyzed. There is no spring and gush of holy emo- 
tion in his task. It is all a sheer, dead lift of 
bare, hard duty. Such seasons are very discour- 
aging. Many a pastor gives way before them, 
and hastily concludes that his usefulness is at an 
end in that field. He resigns and goes to another 
pastorate only to find the same condition of 
things. Grit and grace to keep right on until the 
frozen hearts are thawed out and the streams of 
love and activity begin to flow, are probably what 
the pastor most needs. — 

Thirdly, a pastorate may present or seem to 
present exceptionally peculiar difficulties. They 
loom large and threatening to the pastor. They 
may appear to be insurmountable. He is inclined 
to flee from them, when the very thing the Lord 
would have him do is squarely to confront them, 
heroically to grapple with them, and overcome 
them. A noble victory may be just in store for 
him. One of the chief successes of his pastoral 
work may be ready to drop into his hand. Let 
him stay and toil and wait. It will bring out 
the best there is in him. Sheer persistence holds 
the key to many a difficult situation. It organ- 
izes victory out of defeat. Let him be doubly 
certain, however, that discretion is joined to win- 
someness and persistence, and the victory is ulti- 
mately his. 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


Generalship 


There isa qualification for success that per- 
tains especially to the sphere of leadership. It 
is some ability on the part of the pastor in organ- 
izing and administering the work of a church. 
This is strongly demanded now when the local 
church is so variously related to the interests of 
the kingdom. In recent times the activities of 
a church, in number and form, are greatly mul- 
tiplied. It is not enough that the pastor shall 
be strong in the pulpit, he must be equally strong 
out of it. He is wisely and efficiently to use 
as a spiritual force the church that has been 
placed ,at his disposal. This involves both or- 
ganization and administration. For a pastor 
may have a gift for marking out suitable kinds 
of church work, but not a corresponding gift 
for getting the members to undertake and prose- 
cute them. The two must be reasonably com- 
‘bined in the pastor. Henry Clay Trumbull has 
so exactly expressed my view on this topic that 
I shall use his words: 


The extent of our usefulness in this world will in large 
degree depend on the use we are able to make of other 
men. Our power to organize other minds and other arms 
and feet to the execution of important purposes is a fair 
measure of our capacity for usefulness. Our intuitive 
selecting and magnetic attracting and ready training and 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


constant inspiring of others set at work by us, will be 
able to make an impression more profound and useful on 
the activities of an age than would even herculean efforts 
engaged in single-handed. The pastor who tries to do all 
the work himself, instead of cultivating an aptitude for 
using others, will not be able to effect as valuable and far- 
teaching development as he would if he understood and 
applied the art of getting other people to work alongside 
and in place of himself. 

It is probably true that in the pastoral ministry 
the ability to organize and to administer is not 
equal to that of preaching. It is, however, an 
ability that can be developed by practise. The 
only caution called for is that a pastor shall not, 
at. any given time in his ministry, organize be- 
yond his ability to execute. The machinery 
should not be in excess of the power to run it. 


IV. THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE PREACHER 


There are four qualifications that have to do 
with the minister as a preacher. 


1. The Intention to Communicate 


The true preacher holds his goods for delivery. 
He gathers his riches to pass them on to others. 
This is the opposite of the intention to acquire. 
The two states of mind are radically unlike. One 
is the temper of the orator, the other the temper 
of the student. It has been truthfully said: 


radial 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





The minister’s true object is not to learn in order that he 
may know, but to know in order that he may teach. The 
mere act of acquiring knowledge is in itself a force to 
disqualify rather than to qualify the acquiring mind for 
the act of imparting the knowledge acquired. The stu- 
dent’s habit and the orator’s habit—these are two things 
entirely different. They are indeed in a relation of some 
hostility to each other. The student acquires, and the ora- 
tor imparts. He must study not as a student, but as an 
orator. Not as one who desires to know, but as one who 
desires to tell. 


Now, the constant danger of a studious and 
thoughtful preacher—and no man is fit for the 
ministry who is not studious and thoughtful— 
is that, in making his sermons, he will be turned 
inward upon himself rather than outward toward 
the hearers; that he will fall into bondage to 
the process of discovering and mastering truth 
purely from his own point of view, and for his 
own satisfaction, and so will fail to hold it as 
a precious possession to be passed on to others 
for their highest spiritual welfare. The student’s 
temper ever threatens the orator’s temper. The 
mind is differently geared, so to speak, in the 
two tempers. The standing problem of a grow- 
ing preacher is twofold—the adjusting of his 
mental machinery for the acquiring of truth, and 
also for the communicating of truth. He is ever 
to remember that, in the deepest sense, the inlet 
into his mind and personality is in the service of 


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the outlet. The streams that flow into him are 
to flow out again for the weal of others. It is 
probably true, that, as a preacher advances in 
years, in thoughtfulness, and in knowledge, he 
is in considerable peril of giving the maximum 
of attention to acquisition and the minimum to 
communication. The moment this takes place he 
is beginning to die as a preacher. He is losing 
his feeling for an audience, and in losing this he 
is losing all as a teller of truth. 

The intention to communicate is, in its initial 
stage, a homiletic volition. It must be attended 
to. Itis the fruit of culture. The preacher must 
bethink himself of this and not leave the homi- 
letic instinct to untutored working, for it may 
fail him. He needs to cultivate it until it be- 
comes a sort of second homiletic nature. What 
the London Atheneum said of Lord Acton, the 
learned historian, holds a valuable caution to 
every preacher: “Lord Acton’s search for 
knowledge became so absorbing a passion that 
the desire to set it forth had largely decayed.” 
A maxim influential in the preacher’s conscious- 
ness should be: I intend to communicate the 
truth of this sermon to a popular audience for 
the end either of changing lives into Christian 
lives, or of lifting lives already Christian to a 
higher spiritual level. This attitude puts him in 


[113 ] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





an oratorical mood. He is in the adequate frame 
for composing. The product will be that, not of 
the cloistered student, but of the public speaker— 
an oration. An indescribably persuasive influ- 
ence has thus been engendered within him, and 
goes forth in his preaching. 

It is the natural history of an intention to com- 
municate, to become an impulse to communicate. 
It gradually passes from the will to the feelings. 
The preacher becomes possessed of a strong emo- 
tional mood to pass on to others for richest spir- 
itual ends the good things that are in him. They 
come to him in transition. As another has said: 


One may believe in and love the truth as a philosopher 
or a theologian. The preacher touches truth on its way 
to men. 


Thus it was with Peter and Paul. Peter de- 
clared to the Jewish council, “We cannot but 
speak the things which we saw and heard.” And 
Paul could never think of the sublime contents 
of the gospel of the Son of God without having 
his impulse to communicate them to others 
mightily stirred. At such times his characteristic 
expression was, “ Whereunto I was appointed a 
herald and an apostle.” “I long to see you,” he 
wrote to the church in Rome, “that I may im- 
part unto you some spiritual gift. I am debtor 


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both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the 
wise and the foolish; so, as much as in me is, I 
am ready to preach the gospel to you also that 
are in Rome.”’ 

In the light of the foregoing considerations 
how forcibly apt is the statement of Phillips 
Brooks: 


The preparation for the ministry must be nothing less 
than the kneading and tempering of a man’s whole nature 
till it becomes of such a consistency and quality as to be 
capable of transmission. This is the largeness of the 
preacher’s culture. 


2. Imagination 


Doctor Bushnell calls the gospel “a gift to the 
imagination.” In a significant sense this is true. 
And Henry Ward Beecher has said, “I regard 
the imagination the most important of the fac- 
tors that make the preacher.”’ No two preachers 
have been better examples of their precepts than 
these two. Both were rarely gifted in imagina- 
tive energy. Imagination marked every phase of 
Doctor Bushnell’s varied work. Take imagina- 
tion from Mr. Beecher’s preaching, and its crown- 
ing glory fades. At least a fivefold agency of the 
imagination is indispensable to the understanding 
and the communicating of Christian truth. 

First, inasmuch as divine truth has had a his- 


[115] 


THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 


tory, has come out of varying times and circum- 
stances, and through men of different disposi- 
tions, gifts, and experiences, the imagination is 
requisite in enabling the preacher to transfer him- 
self back into the old historic associations, to re- 
construct the situation in which the truth was 
originally given, to see the truth from the point 
of view of those who spoke or wrote it, to gain 
true insight into the men through whom the truth 
came; in a word, to put himself in their places. 
Without this he cannot adequately grasp and ap- 
preciate the truth. The preacher’s getting his 
true message depends largely upon this function 
of the historic imagination. 

Secondly, imagination in the preacher is essen- 
tial to his appreciation of the imaginative element 
im the Scriptures. How abundant it is! It is 
here that Bushnell’s phrase, “ The gospel a gift 
to the imagination,” has peculiar application. The 
Bible is full of story, of narrative, of poetry, of 
parable, of illustration. The prophets, who 
occupy so large a place in the Old Testament, 
Jesus, whose teachings constitute the Gospels, 
Paul, whose letters, next to the Gospels, are the 
chief content of the New Testament, used the 
language of imagination. Their conceptions were 
always concrete, and their expression largely fig- 
urative. The merely logical or philosophic mind, 


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the unimaginative mind, is in an entirely uncon- 
genial realm in the Scriptures, and lacks the 
equipment for understanding most of their ma- 
terial. The preacher without imagination is like 
a blind man standing amid the glories of the natu- 
ral world bathed in, and suffused by, the midday 
sun. 

Thirdly, the preacher’s imagination has a 
deeper function than the appreciating of the fig- 
urative element of the Scriptures; it is necessary 
in order to the penetrating into the inner mean- 
ing of truth. For this grammar, lexicon, and 
logical reasoning are essential, but not sufficient. 
They must be accompanied by that mysterious 
power of the soul which looks and sees, with no 
consciousness of any logical process—spiritual in- 
sight which is the imagination, the eye of the 
mind, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. 
No man, to whom has been denied the imagina- 
tive gift, can be either a great interpreter or a 
ereat preacher of the gospel. One may parse 
with utmost correctness every sentence of the 
original languages of the Bible, and yet just miss 
the inner and vital meaning of a passage. An 
ounce of insight is worth a pound of scholar- 
ship. The man who possesses both is one of 
God’s choicest gifts, one of God’s elect servants. 

Fourthly, the preacher needs the office of the 


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wmagination in order adequately to express the 
truth picturesquely. A picturesque revelation, 
which Christianity certainly is, and which the 
Bible certainly records, requires a picturesque 
expression. Hearers grasp and welcome truth 
when the visual power of the mind is addressed. 
It is built in that way. Dr. John A. Broadus, 
himself a fine example of his precept, says: * 


A preacher without imagination may be respected for his 
sound sense, may be loved for his homely goodness, but he 
will not move a congregation, he will not be a power in the 
community. It is a matter on which preachers seldom 
bestow thoughtful attention, and yet few things are so 
important to their real success as the possession, the cul- 
ture, the control of the imagination. 


Fifthly, the preacher needs imagination im or- 
der to tdealizge his hearers. This means that he 
is to do more than to take account of his people 
merely as they are, to regard them only in their 
prosaic abilities, occupations, and lives. He is to 
see them in their possibilities, in what they may 
become in Christ Jesus, in their minds, feelings, 
volitions, character, service, how they may, “ be- 
holding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, be 
transfigured into the same image from glory to 
glory” (2 Cor. 3: 18). A very commonplace ~ 
nature may blossom into a, singularly beautiful 


3 “* Preparation and Delivery of Sermons,” Revised Edition, p. 421. 


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and attractive spiritual life. It is imagination in 
the preacher that sees this, enables him to appre- 
ciate it, and to strive for it. It was this sort of 
imaginative power that so conspicuously and so 
gloriously marked the ministry of Jesus, that en- 
abled him to see the “ pearl of great price’ which 
was hidden in every most ordinary human 
personality. 

It is probably not too much to say that Chris- 
tian ministers are, on the whole, more deficient 
in imaginative power, in its varied aspects, than 
in almost anything else. They should strive in 
every way to enrich it. This they may do by 
studying the beauties of nature, the fine arts— 
painting, sculpture, poetry, the discourses of im- 
aginative preachers such as Beecher, Brooks, 
Jowett, Morrison, Watkinson, Shannon, the Book 
from which they chiefly derive the materials for 
preaching, the finest example of imaginative 
power in insight and expression; especially by 
practically exercising imagination in the study 
of character, and in the conception and the pres- 
entation of truth. 


3. A Reasonable Mastery of the Forces of 
Persuasion 

The Christian preacher is a persuader of men. 

He addresses free human beings who have the 


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power of choice. They can accept or reject his 
message. If skilful in communicating saving 
truth, he marshals the leading inducements that 
should influence thoughtful and sincere hearers 
to accept it, and he uses every legitimate art in 
his psychological approach to secure their favor- 
able decision. 

What are the chief steps or stages in the per- 
suasive process? 

The first is the preacher’s clear recognition 
that the object of the sermon 1s so to present 
truth as to secure in his hearers action—that is, 
movement in the ethical sphere of personality 
either in forming a purpose, or in performing 
an act, or both. The final test of effective dis- 
course is not what people think of it, but what 
they propose to do with it. The second is, that, 
in striving to achieve his object, the feelings of 
his hearers are of central value to the preacher. 
He must move them or nothing worth while is 
moved. And this for two reasons: First, the 
prominence of sensibility in the constitution of 
human nature. Modern psychology is strongly 
stressing this. It is verifying Mark Hopkins’ 
statement : 


Among intellect, sensibility, and will, sensibility is central. 
It is the source of all feeling. . .. The feelings constitute 
the fundamental elements of the psychical life. 


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We are now told, on scientific authority, that 
the instinctive emotions, and not the will, are the 
source of power in human personality, that they 
are 

the great driving forces of life. The will may open the 


sluice-gates, but the instinctive emotions constitute the 
flood which sweeps through the channel. 


Secondly, because of the prominence of the feel- 
ings in Christian character. Repentance, faith, 
hope, love, peace, joy, humility, and the like, are 
imbedded in the sensibility. The third is, that 
the preacher is never to arouse the feelings of his 
hearers apart from or beyond their intellectual 
assent to the truth presented wm the discourse. 
George Adam Smith says of Henry Drummond: 
He sought to win the reason of men for religion. This 
was always his first aim. He had an ill-will—one might 


say a horror—at rousing the emotions before he had se- 
cured the conviction of the intellect. 


The feelings are always healthfully moved by a 
suitable idea suitably expressed. Says Vinet: 
Nothing in the soul is lasting which has not an idea for 


its internal support. An idea nourishes, renews emotion, 
which left to itself is dissipated. 


Nil citius arescit lacryma, “ Nothing dries sooner 
than tears.” If the judgment of the hearer 
is not carried, when the feelings are cooled, 


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and the inevitable reaction comes after he 
is freed from the spell of the orator, irrep- 
arable harm will result. The preacher is to 
“value no feeling that is not the daughter of 
truth, and the mother of duty.” Ethical and 
spiritual action, buttressed by the mind and the 
judgment, is the issue of all sound preaching. 
How true it is that nothing so petrifies the heart 
as to arouse the emotions and then give them 
nothing to do. President Eliot is reported as 
saying, “I find it does me no good to get my 
emotions stirred up unless I can do something 
about it all.” Indeed, nothing could do greater 
harm. These are the stages of persuasion in 
preaching; a volitional object sought, the moving 
of the feelings toward the attaining of the ob- 
ject; no movement of the feelings beyond the as- 
sent of the mind and the judgment. The maxim 
of Rufus Choate, the great lawyer and orator, 
touching an effective legislator’s speech, is equally 
applicable to the preacher’s sermon: “ Truth for 
the staple, good taste the form, persuasion to act 
the end.”” Among the masterpieces of persuasive 
utterance none rank higher than Judah’s plea for 
Benjamin recorded in Genesis, the forty-fourth 
chapter. It is worthy of careful study by the 
Christian preacher, as in Antony’s speech in 
Shakespeare’s Julius Ceesar. 


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4, The Fusion of All His Powers 


In the invention of materials there is the har- 
monious cooperation of all his powers. He does 
not make his quest by the agency of any single 
power divorced from his composite nature. His 
whole self, his entire conscious being is in move- 
ment. As it is impossible to separate form and 
color and fragrance in the flower, and still pre- 
serve it, so it is impossible to separate one power, 
or set of powers, from the others in the preacher 
without destroying him as a preacher. 

In the arrangement and the development of 
truth the effective preacher employs his powers 
in united action. His reason and his imagination, 
his emotion and his will blend, else his sermon 
is not the fruit of a complete man, but of a frac- 
tion of a man. And as only a part of him has 
gone into it, in a vital sense it is not his. It is 
on this account, probably, that really able men 
have failed in the pulpit. One preacher thinks 
that he is nothing if not metaphysical. So he 
strains his speculative understanding, and cramps 
and smothers his imagination and feeling. 
Another believes that emotion is the chief desid- 
eratum in preaching, and he overworks his sensi- 
bility. Still another is all imagination. Poetic 
beauty in discourse is the golden fleece for which 


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he makes his weekly sermonic adventure. If he 
can only bring that to his hearers, orderly ar- 
rangement, strength of reasoning, and moving 
sentiment may well be sacrificed. And so preach- 
ers are sometimes classified as metaphysical 
preachers, argumentative preachers, imaginative 
preachers, emotional preachers. Such parceling 
out of a preacher’s powers is a serious homiletic 
error, and it has deprived the ministry of much 
usefulness. It is wholly incongruous with the 
truth that he is sent to preach. For as Professor 
Phelps says: 

If a metaphysical truth is stated in the Bible, it seems as 
if it happened to be where it is: perhaps it stands side by 
side with a gleam of poetry. Pure intellect and pure emo- 


tion play in and out, often, in the structure of a text, with 
the artlessness, yet without the incoherence, of dreams. 


How characteristic this is of the epistles of Paul, 
notably of that most severely reasoned of them 
all—the letter to the Romans! In it from be- 
ginning to end logic and life interpenetrate. As 
Dean Howson remarks, *‘ The life comes out at 
every crevice of the reasoning.’”’ It is the prod- 
uct, not of Paul’s logical understanding alone, 
but of his entire personality. It is true of him 
as the author of that epistle as Coleridge said it 
was of Charles James Fox as an orator, “ His 
intellect was all feeling, and his feeling was all 


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THE MINISTER’S EQUIPMENT 


intellect.” The method of Paul must be the 
method of the most impressive and successful 
preacher. The whole man in the spontaneous 
and enthusiastic fusion of all his powers is at 
work. Of course, there will be a predominance 
of one power in one preacher and of another 
power in another preacher. In one argumenta- 
tion will overtop imagination and emotion. But 
whatever blending of these and other powers a 
preacher naturally has or can acquire by legiti- 
mate and persistent training, greatly increases his 
effectiveness. 

The same psychological truth of the fusion of 
all the preacher’s powers holds in his delwery of 
discourse. Ina sense it is more imperatively re- 
quired here than in any other aspect of his rela- 
tion to the sermon. His sympathetic, complex 
nature, physical and psychical, is the living chan- 
nel through which swells and rushes the stream 
of his sacred eloquence in its outflow, yes, its over- 
flow, upon his hearers. The truth that he im- 
parts is infused with his physical vitality, com- 
pacted with his logical understanding, colored 
with his imagination, warmed with his heart, 
nerved with his will, winged with his consecrated 
personality. A chief element of Phillips Brooks’ 
influence as a preacher was “the beautiful com- 
bination and harmony in which he possessed the 


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THE MINISTER AND HIS MINISTRY 





intellectual, imaginative, and emotive powers.” 
And this is the open secret of the world’s greatest 
preaching. Every true minister will make it his 
aim and purpose to pay the price of efficiency by 
faithfully cultivating these powers in their co- 
working in the communication of Christian truth. 


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